The Federal Government under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has announced readiness to welcome over 3,690 Nigerians likely to be deported from the US.
It is gathered that nearly two million “illegal immigrants” have been identified by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation from the country.
The deportations come as President Donald Trump enforces his crackdown on illegal immigrants in the country.
“Lack of cooperation from countries in accepting the return of their nationals may lead to ICE classifying those countries as uncooperative or at-risk of non-compliance.”
Before winning the presidential election in November, Trump said clamping down on illegal immigrants would be one of his priorities.
The US president has repeatedly described illegal immigrants as aliens who drive up crime rates in the US.
Trump signed a slew of executive orders on the first day of his second coming. Among these was declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and ordering the deployment of troops to enhance border security.
Meanwhile, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission has said that the Federal Government is ready to welcome deported Nigerians from the United States.
The Director of Media and Corporate Affairs of the commission, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, in an interview with Vanguard on Tuesday evening, said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in charge of such development.
Balogun further said FG had already set up an inter-agency committee to handle the matter should Nigerians be 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, NSA, should there be mass deportation of Nigerians from the US.”
However, the NiDCOM spokesperson stressed that its commission was not aware of Nigerians in America being processed for deportation.
