The United States is set to return the first group of Nigerian deportees under the Donald Trump administration to Lagos.
This was revealed by the US envoy to Nigeria, Richard Miller, in a statement issued by Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.
Miller explained that Nigerians who were convicted in the US would be repatriated to Lagos, marking the start of the deportation process.
He clarified that there would be no option for the deportees to be sent to other cities such as Port Harcourt or Abuja.
“Those to be repatriated would be dropped in Lagos. There wouldn’t be room for whether it should be in Port Harcourt or Abuja,” Miller said.
He went on to outline the nature of the first group of deportees: “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,” he added.
This announcement comes after the US government identified 3,690 Nigerian nationals as part of the 1.4 million illegal migrants slated for deportation.
A reminder that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed that these Nigerian nationals have been on ICE’s non-detained docket with final orders of removal since November 24, 2024.
The non-detained docket includes individuals who have been ordered to leave the US but are not being held by ICE.
With 3,690 individuals, Nigeria has the second-highest number of people targeted for deportation in Africa, following Somalia, which has 4,090 deportees.
