Carlos Felipe Jaramillo Grajales, a 55-year-old Colombian citizen residing in Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced on August 12 to three years in federal prison after admitting that he usurped the identity of a U.S. citizen to obtain official documents and vote in several elections for over two decades.
According to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, Jaramillo Grajales took the name, date of birth, and Social Security number of a citizen born in Puerto Rico to create a parallel identity that he maintained active since at least 2003.
With that false information, he obtained a Florida driver's license in March 2003 —renewed multiple times until February 2024— and a U.S. passport in May of that same year, which he also renewed in 2013 and 2023.
In December 2010, he submitted a voter registration application in Florida, claiming to be a citizen born in Puerto Rico.
The registration was approved, and from then on, he participated in several elections, including the one held in Duval County on November 3, 2020.
The fraudulent scheme was particularly elaborate. Under his false identity, Jaramillo Grajales married a woman who had entered the United States on a tourist visa in September 2003, which allowed her to apply for permanent residency and, ultimately, citizenship, which she obtained in August 2017 while supposedly married to a U.S. citizen.
After divorcing in January 2020, he traveled to Colombia in May 2024 using his fake name. It was then that the fraud was uncovered: his ex-wife flew to Colombia and applied for a fiancé visa under the real name of Jaramillo Grajales.
Upon returning to the United States under his true identity and remarrying her in June 2025, the application for permanent residency he submitted revealed the dual identity to the authorities.
The judge Harvey E. Schlesinger, from the Middle District of Florida Federal Court, also issued a deportation order to Colombia at the end of the sentencing.
Jaramillo Grajales pleaded guilty to four charges: false statements on a passport application, aggravated identity theft, falsely claiming that a Social Security number had been assigned to him, and falsely declaring himself a U.S. citizen to vote.
The case was investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Diplomatic Security Service of the Department of State, and the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration.
"This illegal foreigner spent years exploiting the stolen identity of a U.S. citizen to obtain government documents, claim benefits, and illegally participate in the electoral process," said Tim Hemker, deputy special agent in charge of HSI Jacksonville.
The Secretary of National Security, Markwayne Mullin, was more direct: “Election security is national security. Only Americans should choose American leaders.”
The conviction is part of a systematic campaign by the Trump administration to combat illegal voting by non-citizens ahead of the midterm elections in November 2026, which has included similar arrests in New Jersey, Louisiana, and Kansas in recent months.
In July, Secretary Mullin sent letters to secretaries of state in several states warning that tens of thousands of non-citizens are registered to vote, and in June he ordered ICE to carry out deportations against those who participate illegally in U.S. elections.
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