from the faces-yum-yum dept
I suppose we would all be tiring of the entire “the leopard you voted for ultimately involves eat your face” cliche at this level, however when the allegory matches you must use it. And on this case, it matches so effectively that it will be comical if not for simply how heartbreaking this all is.
Jose Ceballos, who now goes by Joe Ceballos, is the Mayor of Coldwater, Kansas. By all accounts, he’s an American success story. He was dropped at America, undocumented, when he was 4 years previous. As a scholar later in life, he was requested whereas on a discipline journey for college if he’d wish to register to vote. At that time, he had obtained a inexperienced card, which denotes on the prime of the cardboard that he’s a “PERMANENT RESIDENT.”
Reportedly, Ceballos misunderstood the which means of that residency and thought he was licensed to register to vote. And vote he did, in a number of elections, and at all times as a staunch Republican. He voted for Donald Trump in all the final three Presidential elections. He believes he additionally voted for Kansas Lawyer Basic Kris Kobach all 4 instances he ran for election within the state as effectively. However holding a inexperienced card does not authorize him to take part in voting and now the 54 yr previous is dealing with each felony fees for fraud introduced by Kobach himself, in addition to deportation from the Trump administration that he and most of his city voted into workplace.
An sincere mistake, he stated. However now he’s discovered himself in authorized bother that threatens to upend the life he’s spent half a century constructing. What’s worse than Kobach’s fees, he stated, is that the Division of Homeland Safety is now threatening him with beginning that authorized course of known as deportation.
“I haven’t seen Mexico since I used to be 4,” Ceballos stated. “I don’t communicate Spanish anymore. If I get deported it will wreck my life.”
The leopard has come to eat Ceballos’ face, it appears.
To be clear, I take no pleasure on this. Persons are allowed to vote Republican, clearly. They’re allowed to have voted for Donald Trump, equally clearly. I’ve household and pals that did likewise and doing so doesn’t imply that I would like their lives upended or, frankly, even reasonably inconvenienced in consequence. But it surely’s gone time that folks perceive exactly what they’re voting for as a result of Trump and Republicans are merely not fucking round relating to visiting cruelty upon their perceived enemies and it gained’t cease with some small subset of individuals the best way individuals appear to suppose it’s going to.
Ceballos is beloved in his group. The identical city that voted for precisely this kind of factor is now very pissed off that it’s taking place.
“If deportation occurs, I can inform you that Kobach could have bother displaying up right here, particularly if he asks to stick with us for some time,” stated Dennis Swayze, an 80-year-old Comanche County rancher and a Republican voter. Swayze a long time in the past took Joe underneath his wing to rent and mentor him as a largely penniless however keen calf-roping child ranch hand. And he says he’s partly in charge for Ceballos’s bother.
And it’s actual bother. In that information convention on Nov. 5, Kobach stated Ceballos may spend as a lot as 5 and a half years in jail and pay a $200,000 high-quality — for voter fraud and election perjury, all felonies.
Ceballos stated he now understands that he broke the regulation — however he and others in his group surprise what’s a good consequence. The city of 693, in southwest Kansas, would possibly lose their mayor. In spite of everything, as Kobach identified: Elected officers in Kansas are required by regulation to be authorized electors — which means legally registered voters.
He’s so fashionable in Coldwater, the truth is, that his protection lawyer is virtually begging for this to go earlier than a jury, believing that no jury on the town will convict him. I count on Kobach to strive some trickery for a trial extra favorable to his most well-liked end result, as a result of it’s very clear that he plans on digging his heels in.
“Voting by noncitizens, together with each authorized and unlawful aliens, is a really actual downside,” Kobach stated in his written assertion on Nov. 5. “It occurs. Each time a noncitizen votes, it successfully cancels out a U.S. citizen’s vote.”
And: “This alien dedicated a felony by voting in American elections,” Homeland Safety officers stated in a press release on Nov. 13. “If convicted, he will likely be positioned in removing proceedings.”
Coldwater voted for this. Kansas voted for this. And even when a jury primarily engages in nullification, on condition that Ceballos very a lot broke the regulation in his naivete, that not responsible verdict wouldn’t preclude DHS from deporting him anyway.
This solely goes one in all two methods. The barely much less doubtless approach, I consider, is that DHS deports Ceballos regardless of the end result of his case is. If that occurs, the Trump administration could have solidified the purpose that cruelty is the one meal on the menu, the will of the serfs be damned. The barely extra doubtless end result is that Trump will get wind that Ceballos was a staunch Republican voter and, extra importantly, a Trump voter/supporter, and can work out a strategy to not implement the deportation order that, by all rights, ought to be carried out primarily based on all of the issues that this administration has stated about unlawful immigrants and its plans for them.
And if that occurs, it places the deceive all of Trump’s bullshit. It gained’t be about regulation, and it positive as shit isn’t about order. It would purely be about who’s keen to bend the knee to the mad king and who will not be.
After which we’ll see if the leopard allegory holds true, as a result of leopards don’t really care who thinks they’re fairly and who doesn’t. Within the leopard’s place will likely be one thing a lot, a lot worse.
Filed Beneath: coldwater, deportation, donald trump, joe ceballos, kansas, kris kobach, leopard, voter fraud
