Jermaine Thomas, whose very citizenship was once the subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case a decade ago, was forcibly removed from the United States last week and deported to Jamaica-a nation he had never seen-leaving him unequivocally stateless. Thomas, born on a U.S. Army base in Germany to a U.S. citizen father who served nearly two decades in the military, now faces a desolate future without a recognized nationality.
"I'm looking out the window on the plane, and I'm hoping the plane crashes and I die," Thomas confided to The Chronicle from a hotel in Kingston, Jamaica, to his despair. He was reportedly shackled at his wrists and ankles during the journey to this unfamiliar land.
According to court documents, Thomas is not a citizen of Germany, where he was born in 1986, nor of the United States, despite his father's extensive service. He also holds no citizenship in Jamaica, his father's birth country.
Thomas's perplexing status stems from his birth abroad to a military parent, a legal grey area that led to his case reaching the nation's highest court. The complexities of his origins ultimately led to his expulsion from the country he had known mainly, despite his father's sacrifice.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/son-of-u-s-soldier-left-without-citizenship-deported-to-jamaica/ar-AA1HBiTO?ocid=TSHDHP