For nearly a year, immigration authorities have detained and sought to deport a mentally ill man whose mother, lawyers and public records say was born in the United States and not Jamaica as he claims, a review by The Associated Press found. Phillip James, 39, remains locked up at ICE's so-called Speedway Slammer in Indiana, and his lawyers are appealing an immigration judge's ruling that he be deported to Jamaica.
Source: Associated Press
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no authority to detain U.S. citizens, AP reported, but has long done so, usually for hours or days, when officers mistake identities or cannot immediately verify citizenship. Immigration lawyers told AP a nearly 10-month improper detention would be rare but not unprecedented.
James was born to a U.S. citizen mother and a Jamaican national father in Orange County, Florida, in 1987, according to the birth certificate filed by his lawyers and attested to by his mother, AP reported. A 1988 court document in a case that established his paternity, obtained independently by AP, matches details on the birth certificate, including his date of birth and his parents' identities. He was issued a U.S. passport in 2008, and a replacement after a court-ordered name change was also approved in 2023 — a passport he held for 15 years in total, AP said.
In seeking to detain and deport him, immigration authorities relied on James's own word that he was born in Jamaica and entered the U.S. illegally in 2009, AP found. Medical experts who assessed him for court reports said his insistence that he was born in Jamaica is a grand delusion, a symptom of the paranoid schizophrenia with which he has been diagnosed; he also claims to be the son of a former Jamaican prime minister. One psychologist concluded he was not a reliable historian because of his mental illness. Jamaican officials, meanwhile, have denied any record that he was born or has citizenship there, AP reported.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, disputes that James is a U.S. citizen and alleges, without providing evidence, that the birth certificate he submitted was fraudulent, AP reported. DHS denied that ICE detains U.S. citizens and said detainees facing removal receive due process. In a September 28 filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Irvin called James a native of Jamaica and a citizen of Lebanon who entered the United States without admission, and argued his citizenship claim should be decided in immigration court rather than by a federal judge — that is the government's position, which James's lawyers contest.
ICE initiated removal proceedings in December 2025 when James was living in New York City, AP reported. A judge postponed his proceedings on January 5 and agents arrested him after the hearing. He was taken to the detention facility in Bunker Hill, Indiana — the Miami Correctional Facility housing ICE detainees under a state-federal partnership, nicknamed the Speedway Slammer — according to AP and reporting expanding on its investigation.
Source: Eyes on ICE, expanding on AP reporting
James is now represented by the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit that represents indigent New York detainees. After finding the birth certificate and his mother in Florida, they filed a petition in federal court on August 19 seeking his release, and are also appealing his removal order. U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty is expected to rule on the release petition, AP reported. A former ICE chief of staff, Deborah Fleischaker, told AP the case was complicated but the evidence that James is a U.S. citizen appears strong.