Her father was a US Navy man who served in Vietnam. So why is ICE detaining her?
ATLANTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A Georgia mother who says she’s a U.S. citizen remains locked inside a private immigration detention center, swept up in a wave of federal immigration enforcement that’s bringing historic profits to the company detaining her.
Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March during a routine check-in at its Atlanta field office. ICE transferred her the same day to Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, operated by the private prison contractor CoreCivic, as it initiated deportation proceedings to the Philippines.
Bowman’s family, attorneys, and U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, argue she is being detained illegally.
“She’s an American citizen,” Johnson said. “That has been clearly established. The fact that one of her parents was an American means that she is an American.”
Bowman’s father, Lawrence Bowman, was a U.S. Navy serviceman from Illinois stationed in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. Alma Bowman was born there in 1966. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was 10, and she’s lived in Macon for nearly five decades. Military records and her birth certificate lists Lawrence Bowman as her father.
Alma Bowman, center, with her father, an American citizen, and her mother.(WANF)
Despite that, the federal government revoked her permanent residency following a criminal conviction nearly 20 years ago for writing bad checks totaling $1,200, a debt she paid back.
Until March, Bowman had checked in with ICE about once a year while she sought to prove her citizenship since 2020. Her attorney, Samantha Hamilton with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said ICE gave no explanation for the sudden change.
“The rule of law has never seemed to be so meaningless,” Hamilton said. “They want to remove people without respect to that person’s individual circumstances, even if they may be a U.S. citizen.”
Hamilton said ICE is violating one of its own polices by holding Bowman. According to ICE Policy 16001.2, titled “Investigating the Potential U.S. Citizenship of Individuals Encountered by ICE,” is a directive issued Nov. 10, 2015, outlining procedures for ICE officers, agents, and attorneys to follow when they encounter individuals who may be U.S. citizens.
The policy emphasized ICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest or detain U.S. citizens and mandates careful and prompt investigation of potential citizenship claims.
Atlanta News First Investigates reached out to ICE for an interview to discuss Bowman’s case. A spokesperson said he would forward the request to the istration, but the agency never responded.
CoreCivic, the private prison company housing Bowman, reported record profits during a May 8 earnings call, driven by an influx of immigration detainees under President Donald Trump’s istration.
“Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services,” said CEO Damon Hininger.
CoreCivic reported $488.6 million in revenue for the first quarter of 2025, with nearly half coming from ICE and U.S. Marshals Service contracts. Hininger said ICE has cited a need for nearly 100,000 beds — more than double its current capacity — as the agency enforces Trump-backed policies such as the Laken Riley Act and executive orders on border security.
The Laken Riley Act, signed into law in Jan. 29, 2025, mandates the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to detain undocumented immigrants who are arrested for, charged with, convicted of, or it to certain crimes, including theft-related offenses.
The law is named after the Georgia nursing student murdered in 2024 by Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan immigrant who was in the U.S. illegally.
The law aims to crack down on immigration by requiring federal officials to arrest undocumented immigrants who commit certain crimes related to theft.
Since January, CoreCivic has expanded or reactivated facilities across seven states, adding thousands of beds in anticipation of further demand.
Advocates say the rise in detentions — and profits — comes at a human cost.
“They get money for every person they have in a bed,” Hamilton said. “They dehumanize people so much they just refer to them as beds.”
According to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, more than 2,600 people are currently held in immigration detention across Georgia. About half have no criminal record.
Bowman’s sons, John and Chris, said their mother’s detention has devastated their family.
“There have been a couple of times I come in her room, and it feels like I can’t breathe,” John said.
If she’s deported, Alma Bowman told her sons to sell her beloved collection of action figures — including Deadpool and Pikachu — to raise money.
“I couldn’t do it,” Chris said. “It matters too much. It would feel like giving up on her.”
This is not the first time ICE has detained Alma Bowman. Under Trump’s first term, she was custody from about 2017 to 2020 related to the same deportation claims.
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