A Jacksonville immigrant who illegally voted in the 2020 election will serve a three-year prison sentence and be kicked out of the country, a federal judge has ordered.
Carlos Felipe Jaramillo Grajales, 55, is a Colombian citizen who had posed as an American for decades and used someone else’s name and Social Security number to get a Florida driver’s license, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an August 13 release.
“Federal immigration laws serve to safeguard our nation’s borders and protect the integrity of our government,” U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe said in the release. “Those who seek to circumvent, exploit, or break these laws will be prosecuted fully.”
Jaramillo Grajalespleaded guilty in May to aggravated identity theft, fraudulent use
of a Social Security number, falsely claiming U.S. citizenship to vote and making false statements while applying for a passport, court records show.
He could have legally been sentenced to as much as 22 years behind bars.
The August 12 sentence from Senior U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger met a legal requirement to serve two years for the identity theft conviction plus an additional year reflecting that the other three counts are all felonies but aren’t violent.
Schlesinger also signed an order for removal to Colombia, saying Jaramillo Grajales had waived any sort of protection from being kicked out.
Exactly when Jaramillo Grajales came to the United State isn’t clear, but a “factual basis” statement attached to the plea agreement he signed in May said he went to a Florida driver’s license office in March 2003 to get a license.
Presenting a birth certificate from Puerto Rico, a Social Security card and a driver’s license from New Jersey, Jaramillo Grajales was accepted under the other man’s name, which had the initials J.L.R. but was never spelled out in court records.
He used the other man’s identity repeatedly, renewing the Florida license as recently as 2024, the plea said.
Jaramillo Grajales used the new license to get a passport under the other man’s name in May 2003, the renewed the passport in 2013 and 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He also registered to vote and cast ballots at a series of elections in Jacksonville, including the 2020 presidential election.
Only U.S. citizens are supposed to be allowed to vote in federal elections. President Donald Trump, who has argued that he won the 2020 election widely accepted as being won by former President Joe Biden, has raised concerns about non-citizens voting. A White House webpage about election security asserts that a Department of Homeland Security review “identified approximately 278,000 non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal elections,” although others engaged on voting issues have said voting by non-citizens is extremely rare.
Jaramillo Grajales voting in Jacksonville had no material impact on the 2020 election, in which Trump won Florida by a comfortable margin but last nationally.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Non-citizen who voted in Florida in 2020 gets prison, to be deported
