Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) has confirmed that the Federal Government is prepared to welcome Nigerians who may be deported from the United States.
NiDCOM’s Director of Media and Corporate Affairs, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, stated in an interview on Tuesday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently overseeing the situation.
He also added that an inter-agency committee has already been established to manage the process incase mass deportations occur.
Balogun further revealed that;
“The Federal Government has set up an inter-agency committee, comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NiDCOM, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), should there be mass deportation of Nigerians from the U.S.”
Despite this preparation, he clarified that NiDCOM has not received any official information regarding Nigerians currently being processed for deportation.
Reports indicate that about 3,690 Nigerians in the U.S. are at risk of deportation in the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigrants. A document from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sighted on Tuesday, revealed that as of November 24, 2024, over 1.4 million non-citizens are on ICE’s non-detained docket with final removal orders.
The document, titled “Noncitizens on the ICE Non-Detained Docket with Final Orders of Removal by Country of Citizenship,” listed Mexico and El Salvador as the top two nations with the highest number of deportation cases, at 252,044 and 203,822, respectively.
The USA under the leadership of President Donald Trump intensified its deportation efforts, with hundreds of migrants arrested and several already deported via military aircraft. Nigerian nationals, along with other African immigrants, may be among those affected by the operation.