About 902 Nigerians have been deported from the United States (U.S.) between 2019 and 2024, an annual report released by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has revealed.
The 902 Nigerians deported from the U.S. are said to be part of intensified enforcement of immigration policies, the ICE said in the report.
According to the report, 286 Nigerians were deported from the US in 2019, 199 in 2020, 78 in 2021, 49 in 2022, 152 in 2023, and 138 in 2024.
This means Nigeria has emerged as the leading country in Africa for deportations from the U.S. over the past six years.
Within the period under review, Senegal came second with 761 deportations, followed by Ghana with 582, Mauritania occupied the fourth position with 491, closely followed by Egypt with 467.
Other African countries with high numbers are Somalia (406), Democratic Republic of Congo (395), Liberia (379), Kenya (335), Guinea (294), Angola (293), Cameroon (288), Gambia (223), and Sierra Leone (165).
Aside from the 902 Nigerians deported from the U.S., an additional 3,690 Nigerians have been added to the deportation list since January 2025.
This coincides with when U.S. President Donald Trump took over power in January 2025.
In the report, the U.S. ICE said its enforcement and removal operations (ERO) directorate identifies non-citizens for removal through law enforcement and intelligence techniques.
The agency said after the identification, it investigates the case and determines whether the non-citizens should be removed from the country.
The report reads in part: “As part of these efforts, ERO’s targeting operations centres — the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting Center, the Law Enforcement Support Center and the Pacific Enforcement Response Center — deliver real-time leads and referrals to ERO’s 25 field offices to increase the operational efficiency of its targeted enforcement actions.
“Once ERO identifies and locates a noncitizen who is considered a DHS enforcement priority, ERO investigates the noncitizen’s case to determine removability. When an ERO has probable cause, an ERO officer will arrest the target of the investigation.
“During FY 2024, ERO conducted 113,431 administrative arrests, including 33,243 at-large arrests, while Homeland Security Investigations conducted 32,608 criminal arrests and seized over 1.6 million pounds of narcotics, over $886 million in criminally derived currency and assets, and approximately $192 million in virtual currency.
“The directorates also identified and/or recovered 1,783 child victims of exploitation.”
