Nigerian deportees
US deports first batch of Nigerian deportees, includes convicted prisoners
The first set of Nigerian deportees under the Donald Trump administration in the United States are heading home.
This was disclosed by the US ambassador, Richard Miller, in a statement issued by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday, in Lagos.
Miller said the Nigerians were convicted in the US and would be repatriated to Lagos as the first batch of deportees.
The statement quoted the envoy assaying, “Those to be repatriated would be dropped in Lagos. There wouldn’t be room for whether it should be in Port Harcourt or Abuja.
“The first group will be convicted prisoners. Those who committed crimes and are in US prisons. Some of them are those who have violated US immigration laws. They appealed but were denied, yet they are still in the US. They have committed immigration crimes, people who have been ordered to leave.”
The US government had identified 3,690 Nigerian nationals to be deported amid the nation’s clampdown on illegal migration.
Indeed, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had identified 3,690 Nigerians among the 1.4 million “illegal migrants” set to be deported.
A document by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) showed the migrants have been on ICE’s non-detained docket with final orders of removal since 24 November 2024.
The non-detained docket includes people who have been ordered to leave the US or are in the process of being deported but are not being held by ICE.
With 3,690 individuals, Nigeria has the second-highest number of citizens slated for deportation in Africa, following Somalia, which has 4,090.
The mass deportations are part of the policies canvassed by the US President Donald Trump during his campaign.
Trump has gone ahead to implement this campaign promise, in spite of criticis he was violating human rights and national laws in the deportation process.
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