A man born on a US Army base in Germany to a military family has been deported to Jamaica, a country he has never visited in, as reported by Austin Chronicle.
Jermaine Thomas was born in 1986 while his father, a Jamaican immigrant who later became a US citizen, was serving in the military. His mother, a Kenyan citizen at the time, and his father raised him while moving between bases.
Jermaine Thomas moved to Florida
After his parents divorced, Thomas moved to Florida at age 11 to live with his father, who had retired. His father died in 2010 from kidney failure, not long after Thomas arrived.
Following his father’s death, Thomas struggled. He spent years in Texas, sometimes homeless and often in jail, according to The Chronicle.
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The exact date of his deportation order is unclear. However, court records from 2015 show that his case reached the US Supreme Court. The Justice Department argued that being born on a US Army base in Germany did not automatically make him a citizen. The Court sided with the DOJ, agreeing with a lower court’s decision and denying Thomas’s request to review the deportation order. It ruled that “his father did not meet the physical presence requirement of the statute in force at the time of Thomas’s birth.”
{{/usCountry}}The exact date of his deportation order is unclear. However, court records from 2015 show that his case reached the US Supreme Court. The Justice Department argued that being born on a US Army base in Germany did not automatically make him a citizen. The Court sided with the DOJ, agreeing with a lower court’s decision and denying Thomas’s request to review the deportation order. It ruled that “his father did not meet the physical presence requirement of the statute in force at the time of Thomas’s birth.”
{{/usCountry}}The court also cited Thomas’s criminal history, including a domestic violence conviction and two “crimes involving moral turpitude.”
Thomas, who held no official citizenship from the US, Germany, or Jamaica, was considered stateless. He continued living in the US, most recently in Killeen, Texas.
Jermaine Thomas deportation process began…
According to The Chronicle, the deportation process began after he was evicted from his apartment. While moving out, he was arrested for trespassing, a misdemeanor in Texas. A court-appointed lawyer told him he could spend nearly a year in jail waiting for trial. Having lost his job, Thomas agreed to a release deal. Instead of being freed, he was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility near Houston, where he was held for two and a half months.
Now in Kingston, Thomas is living in a hotel. He told The Chronicle he doesn’t know who is paying for the room — the US government or Jamaican authorities — or how long he will be allowed to stay. He also said he is uncertain whether he’s legally permitted to work or remain in Jamaica.
“If you’re in the U.S. Army, and the Army deploys you somewhere, and you’ve got to have your child over there, and your child makes a mistake after you pass away, and you put your life on the line for this country, are you going to be okay with them just kicking your child out of the country?” Thomas told The Chronicle.