According to a new report, Nigerian illegal immigrants in the United States are now going into hiding and limiting their movements to avoid arrest and deportation by the Donald Trump administration.
A document from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations agency showed that about 3690 Nigerians in the US are illegally residing in the US and face deportation.
The document, titled ‘Non-citizens on the ICE Non-Detained Docket with Final Orders of Removal by Country of Citizenship,’ shows that Mexico and El Salvador top the list of nations facing the highest number of deportations, with 252,044 and 203,822, respectively.
As revealed in the document, 1,445,549 non-citizens were on ICE’s non-detained docket with final removal orders as of November 24, 2024.
The Trump-led administration swiftly started its anti-illegal immigrant policies upon his inauguration on January 20, 2025. Consequently, 538 illegal immigrants were deported from the United States on January 23.
Also, the US Justice Department also threatened to prosecute local and state authorities that failed to comply with immigration directives.
Still, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, disclosed on her official X handle that the largest deportation operation in history was underway.
A Nigerian in Florida who spoke with Punch, said due to fear, many illegal immigrants of African descent, especially Nigerians, have stopped working to avoid being arrested by ICE agents.
He explained the drastic measures he had taken to stay under the radar; “Ever since Trump came to power and acted on his threat of deportation, some of us have stopped going to work because ICE officers can raid workplaces to arrest illegal immigrants at any time,” he said. He went on to describe how his social life had been deeply impacted: “I don’t go to church anymore because it is possible to be arrested there. For now, the only safe place is your house—stay indoors.”
In Tampa, the factory where he works employs many Nigerians and Africans, some of whom have also stopped going to work due to fears of deportation. However, he expressed optimism that the deportation exercise would be relaxed after some months
“The fear of Trump is the beginning of wisdom now.”
“We survived Obama’s deportation actions; we will survive this one as well. We hope that the various lawsuits against the immigration policies will slow things down and eventually restrain Trump from carrying them out.”
Asked why he had yet to regularise his documents, he said all efforts to validate his stay in the US had been futile. According to him, all the systems he tried to obtain valid residency papers didn’t work for him, lamenting that he had lost close to $30,000 in the process.
He said, “I left Nigeria for the US in 2013, and I have been trying to get my papers since then. I was scammed through marriage and other means. In this regularisation process, I have lost close to $30,000. At a point, I wanted to file for asylum, but I was advised against it because I had spent over three years without valid papers. I decided to take under-the-table jobs instead.”
Another Nigerian illegal immigrant in Columbus, Ohio said he stopped going to work for the first week after Trump’s inauguration due to fear of being deported.
According to him, though Nigerians are not the primary targets of the mass deportation exercise, any foreign national staying in the US illegally can be arrested and deported by ICE operatives at any time.
“I cannot assume that Nigerians are not their target now and become exposed to them. No. The best self-defence is to stay out of trouble, and the best way to avoid being deported is to stay out of sight of ICE officers.
“The truth is, Trump’s war on illegal immigrants has restricted our movements. People are mindful of where they go now. The situation is like a rat monitoring the presence of a cat before stepping out. Personally, I stopped going to work the first week Trump was inaugurated, and I have not been going to work regularly since. May we not be unfortunate.
“Going back to Nigeria is not an option—not when millions of Nigerians are trying to japa because of hardship and insecurity. My difficult living conditions here are still better than what is considered ‘comfortable’ in Nigeria. However, we hope that this threat will subside in the next few months,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said a total of 201 Nigerians are currently in the custody of the US authorities and are ready for deportation.
The acting spokesperson for the ministry, Kimiebi Ebienfa, stated that for Nigerians to be deported, the established diplomatic practice was to officially communicate such intentions to the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC.
“The total number of 201 Nigerians is currently in their custody for deportation, but the date and time for deportation have not been communicated.
“And there is no way they will be deported to Nigeria without communication with the embassy in Washington DC,” the official said.
