Immigration officials in Alaska are working to deport a 12-year-old Anchorage boy, while his attorney tries to keep him in the U.S. by proving his father is a citizen.
That’s as immigration enforcement has ramped up during President Donald Trump’s second term. Like other states, Alaska has seen a sharp increase in the number of people targeted for deportation. The boy in Anchorage and his mother are among dozens of people in Alaska facing an uncertain future.
The boy’s mother is originally from Nigeria and gave birth to him in Turkey before coming to Alaska and applying for asylum. The man the boy’s attorney asserts is his father, 46-year-old Bolanle Meshach Akinleye, has so far avoided multiple court-ordered paternity tests.
Despite other documentation indicating Akinleye is the boy’s father, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials say the boy’s attorney has not met the burden of proof to establish her client’s citizenship.
“Because the dad is refusing to take a DNA test, the government’s saying, ‘Well, we don't think you're really a U.S. citizen. We're going to deport you,’” said Margaret Stock, the boy’s attorney.
And as the Supreme Court takes up a case that could upend decades of precedent surrounding birthright citizenship, Stock said she worries people like her client could face similar hurdles.
Alaska Public Media is not identifying the boy or his mother, because the boy is a minor and his mother has a pending asylum case.
‘Always acted like a father’
Akinleye is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Nigeria and a U.S. Navy veteran. He currently works for the federal government, according to Stock. Akinleye met his son’s mother while on active duty, Stock said.
“He was visiting Africa, and he got into a long-term romantic relationship with her, where he got her pregnant,” Stock said. “He promised to marry her and then apparently changed his mind.”
The mother eventually got a visa to travel to Turkey, where she gave birth to her son in December 2013, according to documents Stock provided. She later came to the United States and settled in Anchorage, where she applied for asylum. Her case is still pending and could hinge on what happens with her son.
Property records and social media accounts associated with Akinleye indicate he lives in Washington D.C. Multiple efforts to contact Akinleye for this story have been unsuccessful.
In early February and March, Alaska Public Media called publicly listed phone numbers for Akinleye, leaving multiple messages, and sent several emails to addresses associated with Akinleye. An Alaska Public Media reporter also hand-delivered a letter to a Washington D.C. address listed on tax records as Akinleye’s home.
Despite his parents not being together, Stock said her client and Akinleye have had a father-son relationship.
“He has met his father in person several times, and the father has always acted like a father and acknowledged paternity,” Stock wrote in an email. “The father calls him on his birthday every year to wish him a happy birthday.”
In school, Stock said, the boy is an A student. He likes math and science, runs track and field and plays soccer, she said.
In May 2024, before the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Stock's client applied for a certificate of citizenship.
“The child was born outside the country, and his mother is not a U.S. citizen,” Stock said. “But his father is a U.S. citizen and a U.S. military veteran. And the father has sworn under oath that he's the father.”
By law, having a parent that’s a U.S. citizen entitles the child to citizenship, Stock said. For more than 18 months, Stock and other attorneys for the boy submitted evidence to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to support her client’s case, including Akinleye’s naval records, a DNA test from Akinleye’s brother that suggests the boy is related to the family, and the boy’s Turkish and Nigerian birth records.
USCIS issued its decision in the boy’s case late last year. His application for citizenship was denied. Shortly after, he was targeted for removal.
A deportation hearing is set for early next year.
‘Not clear and convincing’
Stock’s client’s case is part of a large-scale ramp-up of immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration. The federal government has initiated removal proceedings for more than 675,000 people since January 2025, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
That spike in immigration enforcement has impacted Alaska.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Alaska do not release the total number of people they detain in the state. But the agency often contracts with the Alaska Department of Corrections to hold immigrant detainees, and those numbers have increased dramatically amid the federal crackdown on immigration.
In 2023, there were 20 such detainees held in Alaska, according to the state. In 2024, there were 13.
That number ballooned to 101 in 2025. As of April 1, there have been 28 immigrants detained in 2026.
Of the ICE-related arrests in Alaska in 2025 and 2026, fewer than 50 were already held on state charges.
“That could be state criminal charges, a state sentence, probation or parole issues, or a state warrant,” Corrections spokesperson Betsy Holley said by email. “The state has (or had) primary control initially. A federal agency has formally notified the state that they want custody of this person once the state is done with them.”
But compared to the number of non-criminals facing deportation – including Stock’s 12-year-old client – federal officials are overstating the number of criminals they’re deporting, she said.
“I think people need to understand that we're in a time when the federal government is actively trying to deport as many people as possible, and they don't care if they're U.S. citizen children,” Stock said. “They're basically saying everybody has to have their paperwork in tip-top shape, and if it's not in tip-top shape, we're going to deport you.”
Stock provided Alaska Public Media with a copy of the response letter USCIS sent to her client in late December, after he requested a certificate of citizenship. The letter was signed by Bear Dolbeare, the director of the Alaska USCIS field office.
In the letter, Dolbeare agreed with the boy's attorneys that Akinleye was a naturalized U.S. citizen at the time the boy was born, and that he was present in the U.S. for five years before his birth, as is required by law. He also affirmed records showing Akinleye was willing to support the boy financially and swore on a notarized affidavit that he was his father.
“Everyone in the family knows this kid is the dad's kid,” Stock said.
Dolbeare also acknowledged a DNA test of Akinleye’s brother that showed he is the boy’s uncle, but disagreed with his attorney that the test, along with other documentation, was further proof that Akinleye is the boy’s father.
Dolbeare said Akinleye could have been adopted, or he could be the boy’s uncle.
Dolbeare also questioned some name discrepancies on several of the boy’s records, some of which identify Akinleye by his first name, some by his middle name, and questioned the timing of when some of the boy’s birth records were issued.
“(USCIS) continues to be unconvinced of this record that Bolanle Meshach Akinleye is your biological father because it was late-registered, just after USCIS issued you its most recent notice of intention to deny,” Dolbeare wrote. “The evidence you submitted to show a blood relationship to Bolanle Meshach Akinleye is not clear and convincing, notwithstanding his written acknowledgment to be your father.”
‘It takes five minutes’
Stock said it’s not uncommon for cases like her 12-year-old client’s to arise, in which U.S. military personnel have children overseas with non-U.S. citizens, raising the question of citizenship for the child.
“I've had a lot of these cases over the years,” Stock said. “However, normally the father complies with a court order, especially if he's a federal employee, and so I haven't had this kind of problem in the past.”
For months, Alaska and D.C. courts have issued orders for Akinleye to submit to a paternity test, including one as recently as late January.
He’s been avoiding process servers trying to give him those court orders, Stock said.
“We were told that a process server that was providing him with a copy of the court proceedings in D.C. approached him and tried to hand him the papers, and he ran,” she said.
Ordinarily, when a person declines to submit to a court-ordered paternity test, they forfeit their right to contest paternity, and the government treats the matter as if they are the father. Additionally, Stock said, the federal government already has Akinleye’s DNA on file.
“The Navy also confirmed to me over the phone that they have a DNA swab on the father, but they can’t release it without a request from a U.S. government agency,” Stock said.
Dolbeare, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official in Alaska, wrote in his letter to Stock's client that the burden is on her and her client to explain why Akinleye has not provided the DNA sample.
“His refusal to submit to the testing challenges the reliability of his previous written acknowledgment that you are his son and that he will support you, especially where this evidence from him is decisive in the outcome of this instant case,” Dolbeare wrote.
In response to a request for comment as to why Stock’s client was targeted for deportation, USCIS sent the following statement:
“A person born outside the United States claiming U.S. citizenship has the burden of proof to establish eligibility for a Certificate of Citizenship, to include proving the parent-child relationship to the qualifying U.S. citizen parent,” USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser wrote in an email. “Any alien unlawfully present in the country – in violation of our nation’s immigration laws – shouldn't be surprised when USCIS refers them to immigration court for removal proceedings."
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case examining the legality of an executive order from President Trump that would deny birthright citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants and noncitizens currently in the country on temporary visas. While justices have so far expressed skepticism at the order’s legality, Stock said she worries that if it’s upheld, there could be a lot more cases like her client’s.
Meanwhile, the boy’s mother also faces deportation while she awaits the outcome of her asylum. The boy’s case could impact his mother’s, Stock said.
“The mother is eligible for relief from deportation if we can prove that her son is a citizen,” Stock said.
With his hearing currently scheduled for January, Stock said time is running out for both her client and his mother. Where they would be deported to remains unclear, she said.
The paternity test is already paid for, and there’s a lab close to Akinleye’s home for him to take it, Stock said.
“It takes five minutes to give a DNA test,” she said, “and you'd save your son from being deported.”
