Phillip James detained by ICE for ten months despite Florida birth certificate

Phillip James has spent nearly ten months in federal immigration custody because officials believe he is from Jamaica, despite records suggesting he was born in Florida. James, 39, remains locked in a maximum-security facility in Indiana where ICE houses detainees. His mother and legal team assert he is a U.S. citizen, a status that would normally bar ICE from detaining him. The agency has sought to deport him based on his own testimony, which medical experts link to his paranoid schizophrenia.

The Department of Homeland Security disputes James' citizenship claim. DHS told the Associated Press that the birth certificate James used to obtain a passport in 2008 was fraudulent. However, the department did not provide evidence to support that claim. A 1988 court document confirming James' paternity in Florida aligns with the details on that birth certificate. James held a valid U.S. passport under his birth name for 15 years before the government revoked it.

James' legal team says the agency relied on his word that he was born in Jamaica and entered the United States illegally in 2009. Jamaican officials have stated they have no record of his birth or citizenship. Court reports indicate James believes he is the illegitimate son of a former Jamaican prime minister and a member of a Lebanese royal family. A psychologist noted that James is not a reliable historian due to his mental illness. The immigration judge ordered his removal to Jamaica in April.

ICE began removal proceedings in December 2025. Agents arrested James on Jan. 5 after a judge postponed his hearing. He was sent to the Miami Detention Center in Bunker Hill, Indiana. The facility operates under a state-federal partnership that pays Indiana $291 per detainee per day. This rate is more than three times the ICE median bed rate. The state expects to earn $213 million in the first two years of the deal.

Jacqueline Stevens, a professor at Northwestern University who studies wrongful detentions, said the case illustrates how ICE handles citizenship disputes. She argued that evidence supporting deportation is treated as accurate, while contradictory evidence is dismissed. "This case is not a one-off. This is a feature, not a bug, of how ICE handles claims of U.S. citizenship," Stevens said. The government has not acknowledged any error in James' case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Irvin filed a brief in September calling James a native of Jamaica. Irvin argued that James' claim to U.S. citizenship should be decided in immigration court rather than by a federal judge. James is currently represented by the Bronx Defenders, a nonprofit organization. They filed a petition in federal court on Aug. 19 seeking his release. They are also appealing the removal order to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Deborah Fleischaker, a former ICE chief of staff, said the evidence supporting James' citizenship appears strong. She noted that Jamaican authorities are unlikely to accept a person they do not recognize as a citizen. Fleischaker expressed concern that the focus on deportation numbers keeps James in the system. "I would worry that in their quest for deportation numbers, he is in the machine," she said.

U.S. District Judge Damon Leichty is expected to rule on the petition for James' release. James initially represented himself in court, claiming citizenship in Lebanon. His lawyers found his mother in Florida and the supporting birth certificate before filing the federal petition. The government has not provided a detailed explanation for how it determined his true identity was Felibi Siagha Baladi Kambil Coke, a name James adopted recently.