Deporting children of military veterans because they were born on an overseas military base.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

Deporting children of military veterans because they were born on an overseas military base.

This man has no citizenship now.

Deporting children of military veterans because they were born on an overseas military base.

This man has no citizenship now.

— Grant Stern (@grantstern.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T17:03:21.663Z

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2025-06-04/texas-man-born-to-u-s-soldier-on-u-s-army-base-abroad-deported/


Texas Man Born to U.S. Soldier on U.S. Army Base Abroad Deported
He has no citizenship to any country, despite SCOTUS case

BY MAGGIE QUINLAN, 1:08PM, WED. JUN. 4, 2025

Ten years ago, Jermaine Thomas was at the center of a case brought before the U.S. Supreme Court: Should a baby born to a U.S. citizen father deployed to a U.S. Army base in Germany have U.S. citizenship?

Last week, Thomas was escorted onto a plane with his wrists and ankles shackled, he says. He arrived in Jamaica, a country he’d never been to, a stateless man.

“I’m looking out the window on the plane,” Thomas told the Chronicle, “and I’m hoping the plane crashes and I die.”

Thomas has no citizenship, according to court documents. He is not a citizen of Germany (where he was born in 1986) or of the United States (where his father served in the military for nearly two decades) or of his father’s birth country of Jamaica (a place he’d never been).

Thomas doesn’t remember Germany. He says he thinks his first memory is in Washington state, but he moved around so much in his military family that it was hard to keep track.

More



https://www.jamaicalivenews.com/united-states-soldiers-son-jermaine-thomas-deported-to-jamaica/

Stateless and Stranded: U.S. Soldier’s Son, Jermaine Thomas Deported to Jamaica
June 19, 2025 / Jamaica Live Medias


So why didn’t Jermaine Thomas receive citizenship, even though his father was a U.S. citizen and a long-serving Army soldier? Could this be racism and coupled with the fact he didn’t have the right legal representation to hear his case?

While not the only factor, racism and systemic bias likely contributed to Jermaine’s situation in multiple ways:

— Disproportionate Scrutiny: Black and brown immigrants are often more aggressively policed, detained, and deported.

— Unequal Legal Assistance: Poor, minority communities — especially those born abroad — are less likely to get legal advocacy, which is essential in complex nationality cases.

— ICE and DHS Errors: Immigration enforcement has a long history of wrongfully detaining or deporting U.S. citizens, and these mistakes disproportionately affect Black and Latino individuals.

Combine that with the military’s own history of disenfranchising Black service members and their families, and it paints a picture of systemic neglect — if not outright racialized injustice.

[dalton99a]

1. Kick

[Karadeniz]

2. This came up when mccain ran for prez. The issue was decided in his favor.

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

4. Yet this Austin newspaper is dated June 2025

?

[Hekate]

12. The issue was only ever a political smear, but it was hashed out in public anyway...

One of my uncles, decades dead at this point, was born in Panama. He was born an American, a US citizen, because his parents were US citizens. I knew this my whole life— that’s how it works.

I think it only becomes an issue if an American father neglects or refuses to acknowledge his paternity — I assume by registering the birth at the US Embassy.

[JustAnotherGen]

29. State Department

You receive consulate papers. Mine were signed by get this . . . Warren Christopher.

[iemanja]

3. My God

I thought the law stipulated that being born on military bases was the same as being born on US soil?

[ShazzieB]

20. That's what I thought, too!

[SARose]

51. No

A CRBA is required for all babies born outside the United States, including those born on U.S. military bases. It’s also known as an FS-240 Form.

If you were born overseas and your parents are United States citizens, they should have registered your birth with the local U.S. consulate or embassy and been issued with a CRBA.

More

Edited to add

My husband and I extensively researched this while living in Venezuela. Gets really complicated with an adoption.

[sdfernando]

5. I feel so bad for this guy

I was born in Germany too (Munich) but the hospital was off base, even though it was a US Army hospital. My Dad was an officer in the Army. He had my birth registered with the US Embassy...I have a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. Wonder if his Dad didn't register his birth? Has to be done before the 18th birthday. Still a horribly shitty thing to happen and to the child of someone that server our country! Make me so ASHAMED!

[JustAnotherGen]

31. How did he get back as a kid ?

In the 70's we traveled on my parents' passports. I was born at Rammstein even though my dad was an Army Officer.

[sdfernando]

36. The same for me

We, my brother and I both born in Munich) traveled on my mother’s passport.

[Picaro]

6. I have a certificate of citizenship because my father insisted on it

I was born in Okinawa back when we called Okinawa a US territory. We gave it back to Japan sometime in the 60s. My passport says Japan in terms of my birthplace.

My father, who is long since dead, kept bugging me and bugging me and bugging me to go down to the courthouse in Springfield Missouri and take the oath of citizenship so that I would get a certificate of citizenship.

At the time, his concern was that I was going to get drafted into the Japanese peace forces. That I would somehow end up being considered a Japanese citizen. Even though I’ve never been to Japan and left Okinawa when I was 2 1/half months old.

My father couldn’t have foreseen what’s going on now, but his instincts are looking pretty good right now.

Of course, I’m white and I’m an old man now. But I have to be honest I would be concerned about traveling overseas right now. My concern would be that I would get back to this country and they would see Japan on my passport and the questions would begin. A certificate of citizenship which short circuit that entire discussion. There’s no question about that.

However, I’m not sure that that would be enough if I was on their shit list. Which I very well may be.

This regime needs to fall and fall hard. They are destroying our country in record time. Destruction is fast. Building is slow. Rebuilding is probably even slower. I don’t think we can survive as a nation until the end of Trump‘s term. That is assuming that he would step down voluntarily which he has already shown us he would not. However he is going to die. We just don’t know how long he’s going to hang on. It may be too late by the time he dies.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. My ex-husband and my son's father (white) was born on an Air Force base in England. Does this mean he's an illegal?

Is my son an anchor baby? Guess it's good my son and I are leaving the US voluntarily. Self- deporting to a third country.

[Deuxcents]

14. First I'm hearing of this..I think..a few posters are leaving. I'm without words so pissed

About what has become of us. Whatever your plans, I hope you will keep in touch with us and let us know where you are and how you and your family are doing. My best wishes with sadness this has to be your decision. 🌺


Just a note..I sent LakeArenal (sic)a message as I haven’t seen posts and always love the pictures sent from their little slice of paradise. Please keep In touch

[Ms. Toad]

18. It's not being born on a military base that is the issue.

Being born on a military base isn't being born on US soil, for purposes of birthright citizenship.

So if you don't qualify for birthright citizenship, you are only automatically a US citizen if there is an applicable statue which grants it. There are a complex set of rules (which have changed over time) which depend on parent's citizenship, marital status, and residency in the US after age 14.

[JustAnotherGen]

33. 1973

Father was an Army Officer. Both Parents American. Registered with State Dept at Birth.

It's not difficult. His dad screwed up somehow. You need those Consulate Papers to get your US Passport.

[Ms. Toad]

38. The rules are different with only one American parent.

His mother was not a citizen, I believe they weren't married, and his father either didn't live in the US (including on base) for at least 5 years, with at least 2 years after age 14. It's a complex set of rules, and it's only relatively automatic with married US citizen parents. I don't know whether registration would have made a difference in his case or not.

[JustAnotherGen]

43. Tammy Duckworth

Should weigh in on this.

American GI's have been bringing home foreign brides since post WWI.

[Ms. Toad]

46. She can't change the courts interpretation on the Constitution

But she could certainly help change the statutory citizenship laws which tripped this person up. (Note - they may have already changed - the courts decision in his case a decade ago was based on the law on place at his birth.)

[JustAnotherGen]

47. Indeed

Regime change means we can do whatever we want in the near future.

It doesn't help when the man is clearly a Black American. We are going to hunker down and protect one of our own. Done to one? Done to all.

[SonOfNebanaube]

35. wrong

As an army brat I call bullshit

[Ms. Toad]

37. Did you read the case? n/t

[JustAnotherGen]

44. Maybe things have changed

Since Vietnam -but a registration of birth with the State Department should have prevented this. If his father took those steps, then this shouldn't be a thing. I wonder if he and his mom were able to leverage foreign service members benefits? If so, there are records showing he's a military brat.

[questionseverything]

8. What they are showing us here is, they can do anything to anyone at any time

[surfered]

9. Wasn't Sen John McCain born overseas as his father was in the Navy?

Oh, right. Trump didn’t like McCain, saying he wasn’t a hero.

[UpInArms]

11. Born in Panama

Yet was a US citizen

[Ms. Toad]

17. Panama was under US control at the time,

so people born in Panama at the time were automatically US citizens.

[UpInArms]

10. John McCain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman[2] and naval officer who represented the state of Arizona in Congress for over 35 years, first as a Representative from 1983 to 1987, and then as a U.S. senator from 1987 until his death in 2018. He was the Republican Party's nominee in the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

McCain is a son of Admiral John S. McCain Jr. and grandson of Admiral John S. McCain Sr. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958 and received a commission in the U.S. Navy. McCain became a naval aviator and flew ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he almost died in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. While on a bombing mission during Operation Rolling Thunder over Hanoi in October 1967, McCain was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture and refused an out-of-sequence early release. He sustained wounds that left him with lifelong physical disabilities. McCain retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona.

…more…

Personal details
Born John Sidney McCain III
August 29, 1936
Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone
Died August 25, 2018 (aged 81)
Cornville, Arizona, U.S.

[drmeow]

13. My brother was born in the Middle East

to two American citizens in a hospital owned and run by an American university. He's a citizen. This is complete and utter bullshit.

[Ms. Toad]

16. Not the same issue -

only one of Thomas' parents was a citizen, and his father (the US citizen) had not lived in the US for the required number of years after age 14.

Doesn't mean it isn't BS. But it's not the same scenario.

[Skittles]

25. deporting someone to a country he has never been in

because of some numbers regarding his deceased father

BS indeed

[Ms. Toad]

39. And how does that make the citizenship of a

child of US parents who was born in a hospital owned by an American University the same as that of a child born of a US citizen and non-citizen who was born on a military base?

In addition the rules changed - so which set of rules was in effect isn't clear.

The marital status also makes a difference.

I'm not saying the deportation is appropriate - it's not. But whether someone born on a foreign military base is a citizen or not is a complex question, and the year, citizenship of both parents, and marital status all make a difference.

[Skittles]

40. I have two brothers born overseas to my military dad

and our mum was never an American citizen

BUT - we're all white, I think THAT makes a huge difference with these fascists.

[Ms. Toad]

48. This was based on an appellate court decision about a decade ago.

The supreme Court denied cert.

I don't disagree that there is racism involved in almost everything this administration does.

But unlike the instances where they are just grabbing brown people off the streets, this is an instance in which courts had already adjudicated his citizenship. By the time it got to the courts, he had already committed at least one crime (I don't recall the details, which made him ineligible for naturalization. But something felt legally off about the story, so I went to the original article, and then to the case. From the case, I immediately recognized it was the same argument raised against Obama which would have made him ineligible to be president had the lie (that he wasn't born in Hawaii) been true. I researched that tables me of laws extensively at the time

[Ms. Toad]

15. This is the same issue alleged with Obama -

the possibility that the US parent (with a second non-citizen parent) did not meet the over age 14 US residence requirements.

The allegations about Obama were false, because he was born in Hawaii. But it is the same issue - had Obama been born outside of the US, his mother would not have met the over age 14 US residency requirements.

Here, Thomas' mother was not a US citizen. Thomas' father was, but didn't meet the statutory residence requirements. So his birth on foreign soil didn't grant him statutory citizenship.

The appellate court determined that a military base was not US soil, for purposes of birthright citizenship - and the Supreme Court declined to review the matter.

[forgotmylogin]

52. So how did he end up in Jamaica?

I guess they just threw a dart at a map of the world?

[Ms. Toad]

53. His father was born in Jamaica.

His father became a naturalized citizen in '84. He was born in '86 - and since he was born was outside of the US (bases don't qualify), his father hadn't lived in the US post citizenship for long enough (5 years) to qualify for statutory citizenship for his son. (Had he been born in the US, it wouldn't have been an issue.) His mother was, at the time of his birth, a Kenyan citizen.

[forgotmylogin]

54. Okay, that at least sort of make sense.

There are worse places to be deported to but I understand he's not from there so it's not like a vacation. What a stupid process.

[OnDoutside]

19. Take Ted Cruz. No seriously, take him.

[paleotn]

21. Welcome to the Fascist States of Amurka.

God, I hate these bastards.

[Rebl2]

22. I remember

Kathy Lee Gifford going on about being born in France when her father was serving in the military, so I suppose she should be deported. A gal that used to cut my hair was originally from Canada. Her parents brought her and her brother to the US as children. Both her parents and her and her brother went through the process of becoming citizens many years ago. Suppose she should be deported too even though she served in the US Air Force. Her parents died years ago.

[Skittles]

26. she's the right color

so.....nope

[Rebl2]

27. Well

True and pretty sure she is a trumper

[Skittles]

28. that would not surprise me one bit

Last edited Thu Jun 26, 2025, 11:42 PM - Edit history (1)

I remember way back in the day becoming an instant fan of Howard Stern when I caught his show on the radio and he was trashing Ms. Gifford

[bluedigger]

23. I'm a Citizen Born Abroad.

Dad was in the army in Germany and I was born in the US military hospital there. They brought me back at three months on the Queen Mary, I think. I don't remember the voyage. I'm open to repatriation to Germany as long as I can still draw my social security.

[CozyMystery]

45. Me too

My mother was a German citizen, married to my father who was in the USAF.

Because of my mother's citizenship, I will soon be applying for German citizenship, to which I am entitled.

I am not planning to move to Germany. If I have German citizenship, then my children will be entitled to it as well. They must have a place to go if they feel the need to leave the US.

[SpankMe]

24. The law is lagging

The original court case is here: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-5th-circuit/1710350.html.

I read it. Under current law, he is deportable. Here are some facts of his case:

1. His mother was born in, and was a citizen of, Kenya.
2. His father was born in Jamaica and became a naturalized US citizen only two years before Thomas was born.
3. Thomas' visa form listed his nationality as Jamaican at the time he was admitted to the US at 3 years of age as a permanent US resident. Seems his father just made a snap choice on nationality to fill out the form and be done with it.
4. Courts have ruled that US military bases are not US jurisdictions for the purposes of the 14th amendment.
5. He had a criminal record and had been fighting his deportation since 2015.

Although someone born to a natural-born US citizen overseas is automatically a US citizen in most cases, that's not the case if the parent is a naturalized citizen who hasn't lived in the US for a certain number of years. There are other rules about the age of the parent when they became naturalized.

His parents failed him by not registering his birth with the US embassy in Germany and by declaring his nationality as Jamaican on Thomas' visa form. Thomas' parents failed him in other ways.

The US failed him by not having something in the law to address this, or having someone in a high position waive the fucked up rules for this one, extraordinary case.

The law needs to be changed for situations like this. While his deportation was legal, it was immoral, cruel, devoid of compassion and, in almost every other way, fucked up and tinged with racism.

This is one of the cases that I dreaded most when all this Trump deportation shit started - a stateless person. The guy is almost 40 and the US is all he's ever known. I hope the Jamaicans confer citizenship and a passport on to Thomas immediately and someone there offers him a job as a gesture of humanity.

Given his criminal history in the US and the fact that courts have ruled in favor of his deportation order since 2015, I can't see this man ever being admitted to the US again.

[Skittles]

30. " immoral, cruel, devoid of compassion"

that very much describes the entire GOP - and they do this kind of inhumane nonsense while claiming to be "Christians"

[wendyb-NC]

32. Good grief

What forms of evil, is the cabal and it's head henchpeople conjuring to come up with, this? In what way does this help anybody.

[tulipsandroses]

34. This is beyond fucked up. Especially after hearing the full story of how he was detained by ICE in the first place

Thomas says it all began with an eviction in Killeen, Texas, which is about an hour north of Austin. Thomas didn’t know where he’d go next, so to get things out of the apartment quickly, he says he moved all of the stuff into the front yard.

While he was gathering things up in the yard, he was joined by his rottweiler, Miss Sassy Pants, whose leash he had tied to a pole.
Then Killeen police showed up. Thomas says they asked for his ID without telling him what he was in trouble for. He says he responded: I haven’t committed a crime and I don’t want to talk to you. They told him that they’d gotten a call about a dog being tied up. Next, they asked if he had the dog’s immunization records or chip number. He said they checked her chip and didn’t see Sassy’s name, so they told Thomas they’d be taking her to the pound.

The dog was loaded into a truck, and Thomas says at this point, he was arrested. Killeen police confirmed that he was arrested for suspected trespassing with no other charges. That’s a misdemeanor in Texas. He went to the Bell County Jail, where he says a court-appointed lawyer told him he could be sitting in a cell for eight months if he wanted to take the case to trial.

After about 30 days in jail, which resulted in losing his job as a janitor, Thomas says he signed paperwork to be released with conditions. But instead of being released, he was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Waco. He was there only a few hours before being transferred again to an ICE detention camp in Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston.

Unfuckingbelievable. I hope Miss Sassy Pants was placed in a new home.
At least they didn't send him to El Salvador.

[LonePirate]

41. Yet the public and the press will still believe that the right supports the troops.

Deporting a vet's son who was born on a military base is beyond shameful.

[Initech]

42. This administration is pure evil!

[Ping Tung]

49. The Land of the Free....is false advertising.

[Aristus]

50. My Dad was a Vietnam Veteran. And my brother was born in Frankfurt, Germany.

My Dad's first assignment after getting back from Vietnam.

My brother is fifty-five and a very successful businessman.

No one should have to worry about being deported. But my brother? Seriously?