United States immigration authorities have detained a 39-year-old man for nearly 10 months despite claims from his mother, lawyers, and public records that he is a U.S. citizen. An investigation by The Associated Press found that Phillip James, who also uses the name Felibi Siagha-Coke, has been held at an Indiana facility since January while the government seeks his deportation to Jamaica.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), lacks the legal authority to detain U.S. citizens. DHS officials dispute James's citizenship, alleging that the Florida birth certificate he used to obtain a U.S. passport in 2008 was fraudulent. However, the agency has not provided evidence to support the fraud allegation, and a 1988 court document independently obtained by the AP matches the details on James’s birth certificate.
Medical experts who recently assessed James filed reports in court stating he has paranoid schizophrenia and suffers from a deeply entrenched delusional belief system. James has reportedly insisted to authorities that he was born in Jamaica and is the son of a former Jamaican prime minister. While ICE relied on these statements to initiate removal proceedings, Jamaican officials have informed James’s legal team that they have no record of his birth or citizenship in that country.
The scale of the financial impact is significant for the state of Indiana, which operates the facility under a federal partnership. The arrangement could generate $213 million for the state in its first two years. Indiana receives $191 per detainee per day, which is more than three times the national median bed rate of $56 paid by ICE. This specific facility, nicknamed the "Speedway Slammer," has been the subject of complaints regarding medical neglect and overcrowding, with at least two reported deaths.
The case sets a precedent regarding how the government handles citizenship disputes involving individuals with diagnosed mental illnesses. Northwestern University Professor Jacqueline Stevens, who has studied wrongful detentions for 20 years, stated that ICE often treats evidence consistent with deportation as accurate while characterizing inconsistent evidence as fraudulent. Next, a federal judge is expected to rule soon on a petition to free James from custody, while his lawyers continue to appeal an immigration judge’s earlier order for his deportation to Jamaica.