Illegal immigrant used stolen US identity for 20 years, voted before prison sentence

WASHINGTON, DC: Carlos Felipe Jaramillo-Grajales, a 55-year-old man from Jacksonville, Florida, lived in the US for more than 20 years using the stolen identity of an American citizen. He used the fake identity to obtain a passport and driver’s license and even voted in several elections.

Now, according to the Department of Justice and Homeland Security, he is headed to federal prison for three years.

US District Judge Harvey E Schlesinger handed down the sentence after Jaramillo-Grajales admitted to several charges, including lying on a passport application, aggravated identity theft, using a Social Security number that was not his and falsely claiming to be a US citizen to vote. 

The court also ordered him deported to Colombia after he completes his prison sentence.

Jaramillo-Grajales used stolen identity for 20 years

Court records show that Jaramillo-Grajales lived as someone else for more than two decades, using the name, date of birth and Social Security number of a real US citizen.

He obtained his first Florida driver’s license under the stolen identity in March 2003 and continued renewing it, with the most recent renewal in February 2024.

That was not all. In the same year, he applied for a US passport using a fake Puerto Rican birth certificate that appeared legitimate but carried the other person’s name. He managed to renew that passport twice, once in 2013 and again in 2023.

The woman who later became Jaramillo-Grajales’ spouse entered the United States on a visitor’s visa in September 2003. They married, and she later applied for legal permanent residence and citizenship based on the marriage, as her spouse was purportedly a US citizen.

The applications were approved, and in August 2017, she became a US citizen. Jaramillo-Grajales and his spouse divorced in January 2020.

Stolen identity helped secure wife’s US citizenship

In May 2024, Jaramillo-Grajales traveled to Colombia using the false identity. While he was there, his ex-wife submitted a fiancé visa application on his behalf, this time using his real name.

Once the visa was approved, he returned to the United States as himself, remarried his ex-wife in June 2025 and applied for permanent residence based on their marriage.

That was when investigators noticed that something did not add up between the two sets of documents: His fake and real identities did not match.

DHS cites case in election integrity push

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the case illustrated why the administration is focused on election security.

"Because of his fraud, he was able to obtain a driver’s license and vote in our elections," DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement.

"DHS will always fight to protect the integrity of our elections, because election security is national security. Only Americans should be electing American leaders," he continued.

Investigators also explained that he had used the stolen identity for other purposes.

"This criminal illegal alien spent years exploiting a stolen identity of a United States citizen to obtain government documents [and] claim benefits," Tim Hemker, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, said.

"Thanks to the hard work of the men and women of HSI, along with our federal partners, this criminal is out of our communities and, at the end of his sentence, will be removed from our country," Mullin said.