A Macon activist who helped attention to the conditions in a federal immigration facility in South Georgia in 2020 in the care of the US immigration and customs authority, despite her claim that she was a US citizen.
The 58-year-old Alma Bowman was arrested by ICE during a routine check-in and is for the second time by immigration authorities in what her lawyers say that retaliation for her efforts to work for herself and other migrants.
Now your lawyers A enter a Complaint Bowman's detention argue against state and federal immigration authorities against their constitutional rights and demand their release.
Dispute over citizenship
Bowman was born in the Philippines as the son of a Filipino mother and an American father who served in the US Marine at the time of birth. Her parents later married and brought them to the USA when she was 10 years old. Under the Immigration laws That was available at this time, say Bowman lawyers, that should make them a citizen.
But the US government has refused to recognize it as such and quoted a letter from 1977 to Bowman's mother from the US message in Manila, in which they have doubts as to whether their father was biologically related to her.
Alma Bowman with her parents Lawrence Bowman and Lolita Catarungan. Photo with friendly approval of Asian Americans who drive justice – Atlanta.
According to Bowman's lawyers, it is not unusual Roadblock recognized to their citizenship.
“In the mid -1900s there was a common practice when the USA were involved in all these wars in other places to refuse the citizenship of the children who were born by American military men who went abroad,” said Kayla Vinson, a lawyer for constitutional rights that Bowman represented. “The laws of time have made these children citizens, and the US military and the US government have the practice, the existence of these children and the US citizenship claims of these children.”
US immigration and customs authorities can also be exposed to logistical roadblocks if you want to deport Bowman. In July, the Filipino government informed ICE that, according to the complaint, she could not issue travel documents for Bowman: “Because according to the Filipino law at the time of the birth of Ms. Bowman, Ms. Bowman would follow her citizenship to that of her father – an American.”
It is unclear whether new guidelines that enable the Trump management to deport immigrants States of third -party providers will play a role in Bowman's case.
During the largest part of Bowman's life, she believed that she was a US citizen, according to her lawyers. But in 2013 she was convicted because she wrote bad checks of around 1,200 US dollars, so reporting From the Macon Telegraph. She also owed three cases of possession of a firearm by a convicted criminal and a number of possession of methamphetamine and learned that her immigration status – according to the US government – was one of a legitimate constant residents and no citizen.
It was transferred to the federal immigration authorities in 2017, where it remained in 2020 in 2020 in the next three years.
Icing
Until March 2025, when Bowman was arrested by immigration authorities a second time, the check-in in the Federal Agency in Atlanta had been a question of routine.
Bowman had to participate every three months as a condition for her release in 2020 in the Field Office in the Field Office. Finally, the check-ins were reduced to an annual visit to the outdoor dance in Atlanta.
But President Donald Trump's advance of increasing the number of people to 3,000 a day has resulted In immigration agents who pursue new tactics.
“We started hearing in January of this year that people were actually arrested by their checks,” said Samantha Hamilton, a lawyer of the Asian Americans, to advance the judiciary that Bowman represents.
As a precaution, Bowman took part in her check-in, accompanied by family members and her lawyer Hamilton. The followers gathered in front of the entrance, kept signs with their name and demanded the end of mass deportation policy.
During the check-in, the authorities quickly separated Bowman from their lawyer and family and transported them to a prison in South Georgia.
“They said they would bring Alma to a separate room to get fingerprint,” said Hamilton. “But what she says has happened that she immediately brought her out of this waiting room, into the elevator and the stairs down to an SUV, where you immediately drove it to the Stewart detection center.”
The circumstances in relation to Bowman's arrest show that “the decision to capture it had been made before it arrived on that day and point out that it was targeted, probably partly because of her legal work,” added Vinson.
The US immigration and customs authority did not respond to a request for comments.
Alma Bowman poses Christian Mitchell with her child. Photo with friendly approval of Asian Americans who drive justice – Atlanta.
During Bowman's earlier icy liability, she was captured in the now dissolved internment camp Irwin County ended His partnership with the immigration authorities The state in 2021.
In the years since her first publication from ice custody she has proprieted So that the congress would have passed the same law on the same citizenship for children who would have made children of the fathers of the US members easier than citizens.
Now that she is back in a facility with a long story of in custody Malculation allegationsShe is working on combining her colleagues with resources and support, even if her lawyers say that the necessary medication that was prescribed for her diabetic neuropathy is routinely refused.
“The fact that you continue to do this work in view of such restrictive oppression under these poor conditions in which it is in it is really remarkable,” said Hamilton.
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