Data obtained from
the ICE and compiled in a June report by a global tracking website on
government policy, TRAC, says 376 Nigerians, who mainly resided in Texas, New
Jersey, California, New York and others, were served court orders to leave the
U.S. between January and June, having been convicted of immigration and
criminal charges.
TRAC is a U.S.-based
tracking website that keeps databases of immigration, FBI cases and firearms
data for public access.
The data referenced
in this story was obtained by TRAC and sourced directly from the ICE through
FOI requests.
This comes even as
the scramble to flatten the spread of COVID-19 continues with the Trump
administration’s aggressive immigration policy on immigrants.
Trend
About 3,019
Nigerians were deported from the U.S for criminal convictions in 15 years,
starting from ICE’s establishment in 2003 and ending in 2018, a PREMIUM TIMES
analysis revealed.
But within the first
half of this year, 335 Nigerians violated immigration laws including unlawful
entry into the country, overstayed visas, fake documents and many others.
About 41 other
Nigerians have criminal records of aggravated felonies such as fraud, drug
crimes, sex and firearms offences.
Over time, ‘criminal
aliens’ often top the list of priorities when it comes to deportation from the
U.S.
This was laid bare more during the Trump administration as
the American president vowed to “chase people with criminal records away from
our country.”
Court proceedings
Once a foreign national is arrested for an offence by the
Department of Homeland Security, they are tried before an immigration judge,
which is often a lengthy legal process. The individual is most often flagged
for deportation. Therefore, a deportation case is filed.
Deportation proceedings are conducted to determine whether
the individual charged with violating immigration laws should be removed from
the U.S. By removal, it means deportation.
During the proceedings, the individual could appeal the case
and the term could be lessened to a voluntary departure but this does not
provide for alternate erasure of criminal records.
The individual could be allowed to remain in the country if
the judge finds the charges against him or her are not sustained or the
government requests that the charges be dropped, as well as where the judge
finds the other provisions in the immigration law entitles the individual
“relief” from removal.
Between January and June this year, 2,700 deportation cases involving Nigerians were filed with immigration and criminal charges; the outcome of the court proceedings showed that 376 Nigerians were ordered deported.
Nigeria fell behind Cameroon which had the highest figure
among the African countries – 647 – and was ahead of Democratic Republic of
Congo and Ghana which had 229 and 175 deportees respectively.
Concerns
But there are concerns by human rights activists that the U.S. may be brewing another crisis over the rights of the planned deportees who are reportedly kept in detention facilities across the country.
The 376 people are among the 901 Nigerians being held in
detention facilities across the U.S., according to the 2019 report by ICE. No
report of extradition of these deportees has been made yet.
However, in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Human
Rights Watch had urged the ICE to halt involuntary transfers of foreign
nationals between facilities, and put in place policies at detention centres
“that would allow safe social distancing and effective hygiene for as long as
detainees remain in custody”.
“The U.S. government should not force deportees to travel so
long as it puts them and their communities at heightened risk of COVID-19,” the
Human Rights Watch said.
“Despite outbreaks of COVID-19 in U.S., immigration
detention centres and government travel restrictions the world over, the U.S.
has continued deportations with little regard for the consequences,” the US
program director at Human Rights Watch, Nicole Austin-Hillery, said.
“With these reckless deportations, the Trump administration
is contributing to the spread of COVID-19 and endangering public health
globally.”
Repatriation, new threat?
Aside from the threat of importing COVID-19 into Nigeria,
there are fears that the repatriation of the Nigerians could be detrimental to
the West African country.
This is because Nigeria has no well-grounded structure for
the reintegration of such people into the society, a Nigerian diplomatic
analyst said.
“The truth is that the government, who is a major
stakeholder in these deportation troubles, is unperturbed and unconcerned. Once
deported and profiled, they are left to go on their own,” Gbemisola Lawal said.
“With the rate of unemployment expected to soar and a possible slip into recession after the pandemic, there is little hope for the returnees to start life afresh without having to take to criminal acts again because they may constantly feel dejected,” she adds.
Nigerian government reacts
When asked about the government’s plans as regards the
deportation orders on the convicted Nigerians by the U.S. government, an
official of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) said he had no
comment since “it has not taken place yet.”
This is according to the commission’s spokesperson, Abdul-Rahman Balogun, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES.
“This 376 deportation proceedings outcome you claimed for
this year alone, has not taken place. Until then, I can’t say more,” Mr Balogun
said.
Attempts to get the reaction of the Nigerian Immigration Service were unsuccessful as calls and messages sent to the spokesperson, Sunday James, were not responded to.
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