A man born to a Kenyan serving in the United States (US) Army was deported by the government of Donald Trump to Jamaica, a country he has never set foot in, according to a report by The Austin Chronicle.
Jermaine Thomas, born in 1986 in a US Army base in Germany while his father was on active duty, spent much of his childhood moving from one military post to another.
His father, a Jamaican-born soldier who became a US citizen during his 18-year military career, raised him along with Thomas’ mother, a Kenyan citizen at the time of his birth.
After his parents divorced, Thomas moved to Florida at the age of 11 to live with his father, who had since retired from the military.
However, shortly after his arrival, his father died in 2010 of kidney failure.
Since then, Thomas’ life became unstable, eventually leading to periods of homelessness and incarceration in Texas.
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Thomas’ Immigration Struggles in the US
His immigration struggles worsened in a 2015 case that reached the US Supreme Court, where the Department of Justice argued that Thomas was not a citizen, despite being born on a US Army base to an American servicemember.
The court agreed and ruled that his father did not meet the physical presence requirement under the law at the time of birth.
Additionally, the court cited his criminal record, which included a conviction for domestic violence and two offenses considered crimes involving moral turpitude.
Thomas remained in the US without citizenship for years, and without legal ties to the US, Kenya, Germany, or Jamaica. During his recent days in the US, he was living in Killeen, Texas, north of Austin.
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The Deportation by Trump
His woos began when he was evicted from his apartment and arrested for trespassing, a misdemeanor.
When a court-appointed attorney told him that he could face nearly a year in jail while awaiting trial, Thomas agreed to a conditional release, only to be transferred directly to an ICE detention center near Houston, where he remained for over two months.
“If you’re in the US 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 questioned in a conversation with The Austin Chronicle.
Now in Kingston, Thomas told The Austin Chronicle that he is unsure of his legal status in Jamaica or how long he will be allowed to stay.
Additionally, he revealed that he is currently staying in a hotel and does not know whether the accommodation is funded by the US or Jamaican authorities.
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