Jermaine Thomas, a man born on a U.S. Army base in Germany, recently faced deportation to Jamaica, a country he has never visited. This move comes amid mounting alarm over how military families and veterans are being treated by the immigration system. Thomas, who lacked citizenship of any country, including the United States, Germany or Jamaica, was subject to deportation due to a drug possession conviction. He struggles with addiction, which only complicates his circumstances. The federal government continues to argue that his birth on a military base does not give him citizenship.
Thomas’s story, though just one example, illustrates a growing concern for our military families. Thomas’s father was an American citizen and a military veteran. He was actually from Jamaica but is now deceased. This meant that Thomas was ensnared in a bureaucratic web with no viable avenue to legal residency. Though he spent two-and-a-half months in detention waiting for his case to be resolved, that is exactly what happened—he was deported.
In a particularly alarming case, Alma Bowman, a 58-year-old widow, was arrested. She had been living in the U.S. since she was ten and was simply visiting the Atlanta field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for a mandated check-in. Bowman was born in the Philippines during the Vietnam War to a U.S. Navy service member. Her roots run deep into the land that she loves heart and soul. After a recent minor criminal conviction from 20 years ago surfaced, her permanent residency was revoked.
Bowman was eventually released and taken to a facility in Georgia. This facility has been widely criticized due to allegations that non-consensual gynecological procedures were performed on women in detention. Bowman has spent the last 48 years living in Georgia. Yet, his plight illustrates the cruel and unusual practice exercised on immigrants with criminal records.
The Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies have intensified efforts to detain and deport individuals across the country. In May, White House officials reportedly pressured and ordered ICE to raise its overall daily arrests by at least 3,000 people. This increase in deportations has especially targeted those with military connections.
Military spouse Jermaine Thomas shared her frustration over her own experience and that of other military families. Most importantly perhaps, he humanized the pain of these practices on those families who have served our nation in so many ways.
“If you’re in the US army, and the army deploys you somewhere, and you’ve gotta 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 OK with them just kicking your child out of the country?” – Jermaine Thomas
Activists and supporters of Thomas and Bowman expressed outrage following these new deportations. Sae Joon Park, who has been vocal about the injustices faced by veterans and their families, stated:
“I can’t believe this is happening in America.”
He continued, “That just blows me away – like, [it is] a country that I bled for.
Thomas’s case raises questions about the government’s stance on citizenship for those born on military bases abroad. Advocates for military families are not buying the federal government’s argument. They don’t think that should disqualify Thomas from gaining citizenship, even if he was born there.