NATCHEZ &8212; Former Natchez resident Christopher Thomas pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a charge of using a false document to claim citizenship, agreeing to permanent deportation in the process.

The tragedy, from his family&8217;s perspective, is that letter of the law, not the blood in his veins, is to blame.

&8220;We did a DNA test; there&8217;s no question that his father is his father,&8221; George Lucas, Thomas&8217; federal public defender, said. &8220;But it doesn&8217;t matter.&8221;

Born to a Nicaraguan mother and an American father, Thomas was granted upon birth the right to claim American citizenship.

According to Section 1409 (a)(4) of the U.S. Constitution, one of three steps had to be taken before he turned 18 in order to stake that claim: legitimization of his parents&8217; relationship, a declaration of paternity under oath by his father, or a court order of paternity.

&8220;This must be done by age 18,&8221; Lucas said. &8220;If not, he loses his claim of citizenship.&8221;

The fact that it wasn&8217;t done upon his arrival at age seven &8212; or in the following 11 years &8212; wasn&8217;t discovered until a cocaine conviction in his late teenage years put him in the justice system.

He was deported following a short jail term and barred from returning.

In December, after nearly 11 years in Nicaragua, Thomas returned to Natchez, where he was raised by his paternal grandmother, and was arrested for using an invalid birth certificate to obtain a Mississippi ID card.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Lucas said, Thomas will face a sentence of 4-10 months in federal custody for using a false document to claim citizenship. He will be deported immediately upon release.

In exchange for the plea, the U.S. Attorney&8217;s office agreed to drop a second, more severe charge of reentering the country after being deported for an aggravated felony.

Had he gone to trial and been convicted on both counts, he would have faced up to 20 years in prison before deportation.

The law is clear and there is are U.S. Supreme Court decision &8212; Fiallo v. Bell, 1977 for one &8212; of a similar nature. In Fiallo and similar cases, the court has repeatedly deferred to Congress in the matters of immigration.

The clarity of the law and the precedence of the highest court in denying claims in the name of equal protection, Lucas said, left his client&8217;s hands tied.

Even if Thomas had rolled the dice and won, the victory would have been a pyrrhic one, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Lacy said.

&8220;The jury could not confer citizenship,&8221; he said. &8220;If he&8217;d been tried and acquitted, he still would have been deported summarily.&8221;

With nothing to play for but the length of his jail term before deportation, Thomas made the decision to take the deal.

His half-sister, Angela Thomas, of Natchez, said she was devastated by the development and would not stop in her fight to free him.

&8220;He has American blood in his body, but he can&8217;t be in America?&8221; she said. &8220;They can&8217;t take away his rights like that.&8221;

Armed with a mountain of evidence to prove her brother&8217;s patronage, she said the family plans to hold fundraisers to hire an immigration attorney to explore other legal avenues.

Hiring an immigration attorney is something Theodore Thomas, Christopher&8217;s father, wishes he had done 15 years ago, he said.

&8220;There were steps that had to be taken and I was the one who should have taken them and I didn&8217;t know,&8221; he said. &8220;If I had known, I would have taken them.&8221;

He didn&8217;t know, however. And, since his son initially entered the country on a student visa &8212; his mother was in a panic to get her son out ahead of the Nicaraguan upheaval of the time &8212; no immigration official told him.

In any case, he said he feels his son is taking the punishment for his mistake.

&8220;He certainly had no reason to think otherwise, so if anybody is to blame, it would be me,&8221; he said.

And while family members say it is hard to accept Christopher will never &8212; short of an act of Congress, which Angela Thomas hasn&8217;t ruled out &8212; return to America, they say they take comfort in knowing that there are worse places to be than Nicaragua.

Another of Christopher&8217;s half-sisters, Edith Burns, of Atlanta, said she will focus her grief southward, to making sure his three children and their mother in Managua are provided for.

&8220;That&8217;s going to give me comfort, knowing they&8217;re not lacking anything,&8221; she said. &8220;I can do that.&8221;

Had the nationalities of his parents been reversed and his mother been an American, he would not have had to come forward to claim that right.

When this law was designed, fatherhood was more difficult to prove than it is today, raising an issue about the relevance of the law, Theodore Thomas said.

&8220;I just want him out (of jail),&8221; he said. &8220;I&8217;d rather he be free in Nicaragua than in jail fighting for something he might never get, and that&8217;s justice.&8221;