Thanks for looking, it is at least enough to open up the possibility that he did not satisfy the legal custody prong of the CCA, which might explain why it was not at issue in the court cases. I found the appeals court decision, and it dealt solely with the issue of whether he was a citizen under the 14th amendment for being born on a US military installation, didn’t even mention the CCA or issues of custody, meaning that his attorneys likely never raised the issue in federal court. And that would only make sense if the CCA obviously did not apply (or else malpractice, but I’m leaning towards the former absent evidence to the contrary).
Still, crazy, right? That the child of a US citizen serving overseas could be deemed stateless due to some technicalities of US immigration law? It’ll only get worse if the 14th amendment is successfully gutted.
I think it might be crazy if the person would end up stateless - but I have not found anything that says why he is not a Jamaican citizen , just articles that say he isn’t without giving a reason. According to at least some articles and the court decision , his parents listed his nationality as “Jamaican” on his visa application and the immigration judge in 2013 found him to be a Jamaican citizen. I don’t know anything about Jamaican citizenship - but I would think that if the father lost his Jamaican citizenship when he became a US citizen, the articles would have mentioned that and his parents wouldn’t have listed his nationality as Jamaican on his visa application.
I read something that indicated that he might be eligible for Jamaican citizenship, but would have to apply since he was born abroad. It’s not automatic. But just to be clear, he definitely was not a US citizen at birth: that much I must regrettably agree with. If he wasn’t a US citizen, it’s a bit of a legal fiction to imagine that his father—not an attorney from the sound of it—necessarily understood all the nuances not only of IS immigration law, but also Jamaican laws on citizenship. It’s possible that he was born stateless, but his father (1) did not realize that was even an option or worse (2) the US government didn’t even consider that an option for the purpose of applying for a green card at the time.
Moreover, a US immigration judge probably just ended the inquiry at “the visa application [that your non-attorney father filled out when you were a freaking baby] says you’re Jamaican, and you haven’t proven otherwise, so I guess that means you’re Jamaican.”
The US immigration system is nothing if not kafkaesque.
Am I missing something? I assume the key was his father was not a US citizen at the time he was born? (nor his mother?) If not, how does the parents’ citizenship at his birth not determine his citizenship? They obviously thought as the son of a Jamaican that he was Jamaican?
His father was a US citizen when he was born, but for a US citizen to transmit citizenship to a child born outside of the US there is a physical presence requirement - for example, the parent must have been present in theUS for five years with two of them being after age 14. The requirements have been different at different times. This is to avoid the situation where multiple generations of citizens have never lived in the US. ( Up until very recently, I could have claimed Italian citizenship because some of my great-grandparents were born there - even though my mother and her parents never even set foot in Italy )
Nothing I found gets specific about whether his father was dual citizen when he was born or if he needs to apply for Jamaican citizenship or is the application for documentation that he already is a Jamaican citizen. If a US citizen who neets the physical presence requirement has a child born abroad, the child is a citizen and the paperwork is for documentation of that citizenship not an application for citizenship.
If your parent was a Jamaican citizen, then you are eligible to claim/apply for Jamaican citizenship. It is not automatic any more than your Italian citizenship would be. You will need some documents, including your birth certificate, your parent’s birth certificate/proof of Jamaican citizenship, and valid government-issued photo ID proving you are who you say you are. Hope you have all of that handy. ETA Jamaica does not seem to readily fuck people over and leave them stateless willy-nilly. There is paperwork involved before they will hand you a passport, like everywhere.
I didn’t mean to suggest that anywhere issues a passport without paperwork. But there’s a difference between documenting citizenship that one already has and applying for a new citizenship and the articles I’ve seen haven’t been clear about which Thomas needs to do - was he born stateless and needs to apply for Jamaican citizenship (which can be denied) or does he need to gather proof that was born a citizen of Jamaica.
@doreen we have bone fide immigration lawyers on these boards so I will not suggest anything I write here is beyond mere speculation, and it is definitely not formal advice.
I cannot say whether (stipulating he comes up with the correct documents) that can be randomly denied at the discretion of the citizenship office or whether he is “already” a citizen of Jamaica. However, it would be the same office and the same application to certify that he is “already” a citizen, and, also, we have to note that according to that CNN article, he currently has in his possession a letter from the Jamaican consulate certifying that he is not a citizen of Jamaica, which he presumably obtained in order to support his court case in the U.S.
It still sounds like he has been stateless, but can (in theory) get a Jamaican passport relatively easily. Some people are not so “lucky”.
Therefore I assume too it depends how urgently the USA wants to deport him, whether they spend the time and resources to obtain the documentation themselves to prove his Jamaican citizenship. Presumably this would be part of the father’s immigration file for once upon a time… It depends who wants to do the research and how badly they want to.
Not necessarily. As evidenced by the fact he has already been deported to Jamaica. The only thing the US government cares about is whether it will be allowed to give him the boot and drop him in whatever country they want to drop him for long enough to take off again (assuming he was flown in).
These nuances of whether he really is a Jamaican citizen or not and/or whether he can prove it are not the US government’s concern (or such is its position, apparently).
The catch with a stateless citizen is whether the country they want to deport him to will accept him/her. They are under no obligation to accept someone who is not their citizen. However, as we see with El Salvador, and the UK’s arrangement with Rwanda, apparently some governments can be persuaded to accept non-citizens, for various value$ of “persuaded”.