Claim via Social Media
Viral posts in June 2025 claimed that Jermaine Thomas — the son of a U.S. Army veteran and born on a military base in Germany — was deported to Jamaica, a country he had never visited.
Explanation
This claim is true. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Thomas was deported to Jamaica on May 28, 2025, following a removal order issued in 2013. Both ICE and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed his removal, labeling him a “violent criminal alien.”
Thomas was born in 1986 on a U.S. Army base in Frankfurt, Germany, to a U.S. citizen father and a Kenyan mother. While Thomas argued that he was a U.S. citizen by birth, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him in 2015, determining that U.S. military bases abroad do not constitute U.S. territory under the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.
Thomas’ case resurfaced in The Austin Chronicle, which reported that he was shackled and deported despite living most of his life in Texas. Court records show he had multiple criminal convictions, and ICE described him as a threat to public safety.
Conclusion
Fact or Fiction? Fact. Jermaine Thomas, born on a U.S. Army base in Germany to a U.S. citizen, was deported to Jamaica in 2025 after courts ruled he was not a U.S. citizen under existing law.
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