The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement has removed at least 2,310 Nigerian nationals from the country between 2014 and 2024.
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A review of the agency’s annual reports and appendices also revealed that 20 removals have been recorded so far in 2025, bringing the total since 2014 to 2,330, with 3,690 more remaining under watch.
The year-by-year figures are drawn from ICE’s 2014, 2015 and 2016 statistical reports, the 2018 Enforcement and Removal Operations report, and the 2024 Annual Report’s country-by-country appendix, which captures figures from 2019.
Across the 11 years, Nigerian removals fell by roughly 47.1%, from 261 in 2014 to 138 in 2024.
The trend has dwindled over the years, as ICE removed 261 Nigerians in 2014, 224 in 2015 and 242 in 2016.
The number rose in 2017 (312) and 2018 (369) before easing in 2019 (286) and 2020 (199).
Post-COVID constraints led to a significant decline in removals, with numbers plummeting to 78 in 2021 and 49 in 2022.
However, it rebounded in 2023 (152) and plateaued at 138 in 2024. This resulted in the removal of 2,310 Nigerians between 2014 and 2024.
Although removals fell from 286 Nigerians in 2019 to 138 in 2024—a 51.7 per cent decline over the six years—ICE’s country-by-country deportation ledger showed that Nigerian removals spiked during Donald Trump’s first two full years in office, 2018 and 2019, and are expected to rise under a renewed crackdown.
Across Africa, ICE data show Nigeria with the largest total removals over the period, followed by Somalia (1,539), Ghana (1,380), Senegal (1,122), Kenya (858), Egypt (771), Liberia (632), Guinea (626), Mauritania (611), Democratic Republic of the Congo (508), Cameroon (475), Gambia (399), Morocco (376), Angola (348), Ethiopia (328), Sierra Leone (309), and South Africa (288).
Eritrea also follows with 285, Ivory Coast/Côte d’Ivoire (243), Cape Verde (234), Mali (219), South Sudan (199), Burkina Faso (163), Tanzania (137), Sudan (131), Algeria (120), Uganda (118), Guinea-Bissau (107), Benin (93), Zimbabwe (91), Niger (85), Djibouti (67), Tunisia (66), Rwanda (65), Seychelles (63), Equatorial Guinea (61), Gabon (60), Mozambique (55), Zambia (53), Lesotho (47), Namibia (42), Burundi (41), Botswana (39), Eswatini/Swaziland (37), Chad (36), The Comoros (28).
Meanwhile, several others, including Madagascar (3), São Tomé and Príncipe (1), Somaliland and Eritrea saw single- or low-single-digit removals.
Globally, Mexico accounted for the single largest volume of removals, with approximately 907,748 removals over the 11 years, followed by Guatemala (307,325), Honduras (225,347), and El Salvador (134,906). Colombia followed with 34,215 removals, Ecuador (30,816), Dominican Republic (19,961), Nicaragua (17,989), Peru (14,159) and Brazil (13,529).
The report attributed the spike to the Electronic Nationality Verification expansion programme, which shortened the paperwork cycle by allowing consular officers to clear identity checks electronically rather than in person.
Officials say the ENV cut manifest approval times from weeks to days and allowed weekend-chartered flights to countries such as Mauritania, Senegal, and Ghana.
Since the first tenure of Trump, the ICE reports show at least 1,166 Nigerians removed in 2017–2020 (312 in 2017, 369 in 2018, 286 in 2019 and 199 in 2020).
From 2024 to date, the count stands at about 158.
According to ICE’s current count, about 20 Nigerian removals have been recorded as of January 2025.
The agency says the figures remain preliminary and will be updated periodically as case outcomes are confirmed.
In January 2017, Trump signed Executive Order 13768, which broadened ICE’s enforcement to include anyone without lawful status.
ICE arrest numbers jumped 30 per cent that year as Nigerian removals rose accordingly.
In 2019, ICE carried out 267,258 removals, the highest yearly total in nearly a decade. That year, the number of Nigerian removals rose to 286.
This was part of a long list of 3,690 Nigerians whom ICE had identified and placed on its non-detained docket by late 2020, as revealed in January 2025.
Nigeria had the second-highest number of nationals facing deportation in Africa at the time, after Somalia’s 4,090 cases.
In 2021, President Joe Biden directed ICE to prioritise the most serious criminals and recent entrants for removal, leading to a sharp drop in deportation numbers.
ICE removals fell to about 59,000 in 2021, the lowest in decades, and Nigerian removals dropped to 78 that year.
The following year, even fewer Nigerians (49) were sent home amid pandemic-related travel restrictions and continued cautious enforcement.
But a Supreme Court ruling in July 2024 allowed the Department of Homeland Security to fully reinstate those guidelines, prioritising public safety and national security cases.
ICE defines “removal” as the confirmed compulsory movement of a non-citizen out of the United States following an order of removal.
Under U.S. law, deportation or “removal” can be carried out only after confirmation that a non-citizen is inadmissible or deportable. Grounds for deportation include certain criminal convictions, fraud and misrepresentation; security and terrorism concerns; immigration violations such as unlawful presence and illegal entry; and specific conduct like marriage fraud or false claims to citizenship.
This often follows a final removal order issued by an immigration judge or administratively, via mechanisms such as expedited removal at the border.
Once an order of removal is final, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division must secure travel documents, field medical clearances and book a commercial seat or, more commonly for West-African returns, a dedicated charter flight.
The agency says electronic verification has shaved days off that timeline, which explains the surge in removals in 2024.
In carrying out Trump’s recent deportation order, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have raided several establishments suspected of harbouring illegal immigrants and made arrests.
At a meeting with US Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills Jr., in February 2025, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, called on the United States to ensure a humane deportation process for Nigerians.
“We are asking as a country whether they will be given ample time to handle their assets or will they just be bundled into planes and repatriated?” she queried, highlighting concerns over the emotional and financial impact on deportees and their families.
She argued that deportations, particularly for persons with no history of violent crime, should not be traumatic or abrupt.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has earlier said it is ready to welcome Nigerians deported from the US.
“The Federal Government has set up an inter-agency committee, comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NiDCOM, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Office of the National Security Adviser, should there be mass deportation of Nigerians from the US,” NiDCOM’s Director of Media and Corporate Affairs, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said in an interview.
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