A 39-year-old man born on a U.S. military base to an American father now finds himself stranded and homeless in Jamaica after being deported to a country he's never been to and isn't a citizen of.
Jermaine Thomas, speaking from a Kingston homeless shelter, told CNN the surreal experience is difficult to process. "It's too hard to put in words," he said. "I just think to myself, this can't really be happening."
Thomas was born in 1986 at a US military hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, to a Kenyan mother and a U.S. citizen father who served over a decade in the Army. His family returned to the U.S. when he was 3, and he grew up in Florida and Virginia before spending most of his adult life in Texas.
"There was never a question of whether he was American," a close family member told CNN, since he was born to an American father on a U.S. military base.
The nightmare began in February when Thomas was evicted from his Killeen, Texas apartment. Returning the next day to check on belongings left in the yard, he was arrested for criminal trespass after refusing to show police his ID. After serving 30 days in jail, ICE picked him up and transferred him to an immigration facility.
Despite his protests, officers insisted he was Jamaican and forced him onto a deportation flight. "All hope was lost," Thomas said. "I didn't see a future."
The legal battle over Thomas's citizenship has raged for years. While his lawyers argued he's a citizen under the 14th Amendment as the son of a U.S. citizen born on a US military base, a 2015 appeals court found otherwise. The court ruled that military bases abroad aren't U.S. territory, and Thomas's father hadn't met the required 10-year U.S. residency to confer citizenship—he'd only been in the country nine years at the time of Thomas's birth.
Thomas is now legally stateless—not a citizen of the US, Germany, Jamaica, or Kenya. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin described him as "a violent, criminal illegal alien from Jamaica" who posed "a significant threat to public safety."
Unable to work or obtain legal ID in Jamaica, Thomas struggles daily in the shelter. "I'm always hungry, completely exhausted, on constant alert," he said. His family fears visiting him, worried they won't be allowed back into the U.S.
"I just want to know when I'm going home," Thomas said, adding he was longing for "the feeling of freedom and being free to be myself" in America.