This is as 3,690 more remain in limbo with removal orders hanging over them.
Although removals fell from 286 Nigerians in 2019 to 138 in 2024, reflecting a 51.7 per cent decline over the six years, ICE’s country-by-country deportation ledger showed Nigerians removals spiked during Donald Trump’s first two full years in office, 2018 and 2019, and may spike in 2025 under renewed crackdown.
Across Africa, Nigeria still accounts for the largest share of U.S. deportations.
Senegal was in second place with 716 removals, with 410 of those in 2024 alone.
Ghana sits third with 582 removals, followed closely by Mauritania with 491 removals.
Removals to Mauritania rose from 58 in 2023 to 353 in 2024.
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.
Other African countries on the list were Egypt (467), Somalia (406), Democratic Republic of Congo (395), Liberia (379), Kenya (335), and Guinea (294). The rest were scattered among Angolans (293), Cameroonians (288), The Gambia (22), Sierra Leone (165), Morocco (161) and Ethiopia (141), amongst others with smaller caseloads.
Outside Africa, the highest removals are to America’s near neighbours.
Mexico topped the deportation chart with 434,827 removals between fiscal 2019 and 2024, more than double that of any other nationality on the agency’s books.
Analysts say enforcement activity remained high in the Northern Triangle, with Guatemala recording 185,713 expulsions and Honduras 142,349, while El Salvador logged 65,268 during the same period.
Colombia accounted for 30,724 returns and Ecuador 26,847 due to a surge in charter flights in 2023. Peru followed with 11,554. Caribbean and Bolivarian states recorded smaller but still significant totals: the Dominican Republic saw 13,904 deportations, Nicaragua 13,350 and Venezuela 4,962 over the six-year period. ICE reports attributed this to a mix of travel-document diplomacy and a surge in border encounters.
Together, the 10 countries accounted for almost three-quarters of the 271,484 people ICE says it deported in 2024, the agency’s busiest year since before COVID-19 .
According to ICE, legal authority for such removals rests on the Immigration and Nationality Act.
It said foreign nationals might be expelled for unlawful entry, overstaying visas, fraud, certain criminal convictions or national-security grounds.
In January 2017, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13768, which broadened ICE’s enforcement to include anyone without lawful status.
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ICE arrest numbers jumped 30 per cent that year as Nigerian removals rose accordingly.
Punch
