A wave of panic is sweeping through the Nigerian diaspora in the United States following reports that U.S President Donald Trump’s immigration raids have turned deadly.
In the first month of 2026, the humanitarian situation has reached a breaking point, with many Nigerian families choosing to abandon their homes and some even self-deporting rather than face the increasingly aggressive Trump immigration enforcement tactics in 2026.
Pan-Atlantic Kompass reports that Trump’s immigration raids are led by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Part of the operations of the ICE include house-to-house enforcement raids and occasional road stops for identification.
The operations of the ICE have stirred panic, debate, and even protest, particularly following a series of high-profile, deadly incidents involving the federal immigration officers.
ICE officials, in their operations, have gone from house to house, picking people to detain and deport, enforcing the immigration law of the Trump administration.
According to reports, about 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025.
Already in 2026 alone, there have been reports that no fewer than eight people died in interactions involving ICE.
The most recent cases were the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. There was outrage when 37-year-old Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7.
Reports reveal it happened during an enforcement operation, and the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.
Similarly, 37-year-old Pretti was shot and killed by the US federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026, during a federal enforcement action.
This developments have led many to begin fearing for their lives over Trump’s immigration raids.
A Nigerian woman recently broke into tears in a viral video on Instagram, lamenting the panic and grief of immigrants in the U.S.
The woman said she was traumatised by the killing of Pretti, an intensive care nurse at Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
“It is very traumatising the way these (ICE) people are treating immigrants,” she said. “President Trump, if you want the immigrants to leave America, tell us. Just come out and say, ‘All immigrants, we want you out, whether you are criminal or not.’”
“These (ICE) people don’t even care. There are a lot of immigrants who are treated like animals, and these people will be telling them, ‘we are citizens’, but they don’t care,” she added in the post which went viral.
Also speaking with the press, the President of the Nigerian community in the State of Maryland, Mrs Chris Ademiluyi, said many immigrants had gone into hiding rather than returning to Nigeria.
Ademiluyi stated that despite the crackdown, the economic and security realities of Nigeria were not better.
“They are in hiding instead. Nigeria is not any better. Some people affected may want to talk anonymously, but they are not talking because of fear,” Ademiluyi said.
She added that her community supports Nigerian-Amerícans, and they were not mostly affected by the predicament.
Similarly, the Lead Pastor of the Lighthouse/Rejuvenation Church in Rosenberg Texas, Shola Adeoye, raised the alarm on Facebook that Nigerians were leaving the U.S.
The pastor said on Tuesday that Trump’s administration was forcing Nigerians to leave.
“Some Nigerians are moving back home due to fear of this administration. It’s not wise to bury yourself before death,” Adeoye said.
The post generated a lot of reactions on social media as Nigerians differed on the topic.
A Facebook user, Ben Ijeh, said, “Whoever that leaves involuntarily by ICE is not psychologically likely to want to come back in the future. The trauma will be too much to bear. God will always make a way for His own.”
“The way ICE agents capture people could be scary; they may not have the opportunity to get themselves together. So (it is) preferred to time their return home when they can control themselves,” Olukunle Durodolu, another Facebook user, said.
