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Trump

Trump: US government to deport 201 Nigerians

by Folarin Kehinde February 17, 2025

written by Folarin Kehinde

The United States government has announced plans to deport at least 201 Nigerian nationals.

According to U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Richard Mills Jr., 85 of these individuals have already been cleared for immediate deportation.

The deportees, who will be taken to Lagos, include those serving jail terms in U.S. prisons for various crimes.

The development follows the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy by the US government.

The government has carried out deportation of citizens of countries such as Colombia, Mexico and India, among others.

The envoy said: “Those to be repatriated would be dropped in Lagos.

“There wouldn’t be room for whether it should be in Port Harcourt or Abuja.

“The first group will be convicted prisoners – those who committed crimes and are in U.S. prisons.

“Some of them are those who have clearly violated U.S. immigration laws.

“They appealed but were denied yet they are still in the U.S. They have committed immigration crime.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, has appealed to the U.S. government to treat the deportees with dignity. She expressed concern over the use of handcuffs and leg irons on some of the deportees, many of whom are not violent offenders.

Mrs. Odumegwu-Ojukwu also urged the U.S. government to allow the deportees sufficient time to retrieve their assets and settle their affairs in the United States.

The minister expressed concern over the future of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

She said: “We can’t say whether it’s outright suspension. A lot of NGOs are worried and waiting for clarification.

“We will just make that appeal on behalf of the NGOs in Nigeria.

“Even less than a month into the 90-day review, there have been concerns.

“I know before the completion of the review, there’s already humanitarian issues in Nigeria and Africa.

“We will appeal that this initiative be preserved.

“Even if it’s abrogated as an agency, there must be a way of keeping the ideals to ensure that the poor beneficiaries in the communities, not just in Nigeria but Africa, are not abandoned.”

February 17, 2025 0 comments

Africa & World

6,000 deported in first two weeks of Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown

by Folarin Kehinde February 5, 2025

written by Folarin Kehinde

In response to illegal immigration, the Trump administration has deported no fewer than 6,000 migrants within the first two weeks of Donald Trump’s second term, Daily Mail reports Wednesday.

The report disclosed that in the 15 days since Trump has been in office, deportation rate averaged 370 – 400 per day.

According to Federal Data shared with Daily Mail, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 512 illegal immigrants on Monday alone and arrested 715 individuals with outstanding immigration violations, 73 per cent of whom have known criminal convictions or pending charges, including homicide, sexual crimes against minors and drug trafficking.

In addition to the arrests, the agency’s crackdown targeted gang members, including six affiliates of the Tren de Aragua cartel and nine other migrant gang members.

The first flights of migrants to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba that started on Tuesday reportedly included members of the gang and other ‘high-threat’ aliens tied to the cartel.

Illegal immigrants arrested in US [Credit: X| Sec_Noem]
“Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today,” Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem wrote on X on Tuesday alongside images of migrants getting deported.

The base has reportedly been ramping up operations to turn the military installation into a holding facility for deported illegal aliens as the last time the base was used for migrant operations was in 1994.

The report added that an official disclosed that since Trump’s swearing-in in January, nearly 9,000 immigration violators have been arrested, many of whom have multiple convictions or charges.

“President Trump’s administration is carrying out his promise to arrest and deport criminal illegal immigrants. There’s more to come. This is just the beginning,” the senior White House official was quoted in a text to DailyMail.com.

He was quoted as saying, “The volume of crime that they have and the viciousness of the crimes, these people are horrible people, and if somebody thinks they’re going to be wonderful citizens someday, they’re wrong. It’s not going to happen.

“If I can get them out of the country and be in some other country where they’re glad to have them because they make a small fee compared to what we’ve paid to a private prison, or to put them in one of our prisons and cost even more money, I think it would be great.

“I’d love to get them the hell out of our country.”

February 5, 2025 0 comments

Headlines

Trump: We’re ready to welcome you, FG tells over 3000 Nigerians awaiting deportation

by Folarin Kehinde January 29, 2025

written by Folarin Kehinde

The Nigerian government has assured that it is prepared to welcome every citizens who would be deported to the country by authorities in the United States of America.

Abdur-Rahman Balogun, the director of media and corporate affairs for the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission made this disclosure on Tuesday, January 28, 2025.

Balogun said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was in charge of any form of deportation of citizens from other countries.

According to Balogun, the Federal Government has established an inter-agency committee saddled with handling the issue should any Nigerian be deported from the US.

He said, “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.”

Since his assumption into office, the 47th President of the United States of America, Donald Trump ordered a clamp down on all undocumented immigrant in the US.

Some reports also stated that about 3,690 Nigerians were facing deportation in the US, according to a document compiled by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Enforcement and Removal Operations.

However, reacting to this Balogun said that NiDCOM was not aware of Nigerians being processed for deportation from the US.

January 29, 2025 0 comments

Health

Trump halts funding for over 2 million Nigerians living with HIV

by Folarin Kehinde January 28, 2025

written by Folarin Kehinde

The US government has halted the support for HIV treatment in Nigeria and other developing countries following an order by President Donald Trump.

The US State Department stopped the disbursement of funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a programme for HIV treatment in Africa and developing countries, for at least 90 days.

The action originates from President Trump’s executive order on foreign aid, which he signed on his first day in office last Monday.

The order instructed all government agencies managing foreign development assistance programmes to halt the disbursement of funds.

As a result, nearly all US global health funding was halted immediately.

The NPR reported that PEPFAR has stopped disbursing funding and is likely to suspend operations for at least three months if an exemption is not made for the programme in the coming weeks.

With an annual budget of $6.5 billion, PEPFAR delivers HIV/AIDS treatment to more than 20.6 million people. It has helped save lives and curb the spread of the virus.

The US State Department fact sheet showed that PEPFAR has saved the lives of an estimated 26 million people since its inception.

But speaking on the ban, the agency was quoted as saying, “The United States is no longer going to blindly dole out money with no return for the American people,”

However, public health experts fear the new Trump administration might terminate the entire programme.

Some others hoped that Marco Rubio’s appointment as Secretary of State could signal positive news for PEPFAR, given his past support for the initiative.

Effect on Nigeria
About two million Nigerians currently live with HIV with many of them benefitting from PEPFAR.

As one of the countries with the highest HIV burden globally, Nigeria relies heavily on programmes such as PEPFAR for access to life-saving medications, and healthcare infrastructure support.

Over the years, PEPFAR has contributed over $6 billion to support Nigeria’s national HIV/AIDS response.

The suspension or permanent halt to the programme is thus likely to affect the efforts to control HIV in Nigeria.

January 28, 2025 0 comments

Africa & World

Trump begins deportation, orders raids on churches, schools, hospitals

by Folarin Kehinde January 22, 2025

written by Folarin Kehinde

President Donald Trump has ordered raids on schools, churches and hospitals to enforce arrest of illegal immigrants in the United States.

The onslaught which is coming in the wake of close to 100 presidential orders has raised concerns in Nigeria and other countries.

The policy change ends more than a decade of restrictions that protected these “sensitive areas.”

The change was announced in a statement by the Department of Homeland Security which oversees Immigration, Customs Enforcement and Border Protection on Tuesday.

It emphasized the importance of eliminating spaces where individuals could evade arrest.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.

“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense”, according to the Guardian.

The new directive, issued by Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman, also reinstates the use of expedited removal nationwide.

Under the policy, ICE is empowered to quickly deport undocumented individuals who cannot prove they have resided in the United States continuously for more than two years.

The changes align with a broader immigration crackdown by the Trump administration.

This week, the president signed several executive actions, including measures to suspend the refugee system, block access to an app used for facilitating entry into the US, and strengthen cooperation between ICE and local governments.

As part of this initiative, ICE agents are set to conduct nationwide operations to arrest and deport undocumented individuals.

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, confirmed in an interview that these efforts would begin immediately, stating that ICE officers across the country would be actively enforcing immigration laws.

January 22, 2025 0 comments

Africa & World

“We Don’t Want To Be Americans” – Greenland PM Tells Trump

by Nelson Ugwuagbo January 21, 2025

written by Nelson Ugwuagbo

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede declared Tuesday that the Arctic island would determine its own future, rejecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed comments about taking control of the Danish autonomous territory.

Speaking at a press conference, Egede said, “We are Greenlanders. We don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danish either. Greenland’s future will be decided by Greenland.” He emphasized that Greenland’s people and government would determine the island’s destiny.

Trump, who took office on Monday, caused concern in early January by refusing to rule out military intervention to bring Greenland and the Panama Canal under U.S. control. On Monday, while he did not mention Greenland during his inauguration speech, Trump addressed the matter when questioned by reporters in the Oval Office.

“Greenland is a wonderful place, we need it for international security,” Trump said. “I’m sure that Denmark will come along — it’s costing them a lot of money to maintain it, to keep it.”

Greenlandic and Danish officials strongly defended the island’s right to self-determination in response.

Egede noted the country’s openness to dialogue with the U.S. to address security interests in the Arctic, particularly amid rising tensions with China and Russia. However, he described Trump’s recent remarks as “worrying” but urged calm.

Greenland, the world’s largest island, is home to a U.S. military base in the northwest and occupies a strategic position in the Arctic, where melting ice is opening new shipping lanes. It also holds significant untapped mineral and oil reserves, though oil and uranium exploration are prohibited.

“We have cooperated with the U.S. on security issues for more than 80 years,” Egede said, adding that efforts were underway to arrange a meeting with U.S. officials to clarify Greenland’s stance.

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen condemned any attempts by nations to seize another country. “Of course, we can’t have a world order where countries, if they’re big enough, can just help themselves to what they want,” he said.

Greenland is set to hold elections before April 6, with independence expected to dominate the agenda. Currently, the territory relies on subsidies from Copenhagen, which account for a fifth of its GDP, alongside its fishing industry.

Although Greenland enjoys autonomy, Denmark retains control over judicial affairs, monetary policy, foreign affairs, defense, and security.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reaffirmed the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination but highlighted the importance of Denmark’s alliance with the U.S., describing it as Denmark’s most critical partnership since World War II.

Frederiksen also acknowledged the challenges posed by Trump’s presidency, writing on Instagram that Europe would need to “navigate a new reality.”

Key Danish party leaders were briefed on the situation Tuesday, with Green Left leader Pia Olsen Dyhr describing the upcoming years as “difficult.”

January 21, 2025 0 comments

Africa & World

Trump Sacks First Woman To Head A US Military Service

by Folarin Kehinde January 21, 2025

written by Folarin Kehinde

President Donald Trump’s administration has removed Admiral Linda Fagan — the first woman to lead a US military service — as the head of the Coast Guard.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the Coast Guard, did not immediately respond to a request on Tuesday for comment on Fagan’s dismissal.

Fox News cited a senior official saying reasons included her failure to address border security threats, excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, and an “erosion of trust” over the Coast Guard’s investigation into sexual assault cases.

Trump and other Republicans have long railed against government programs aimed at fostering diversity, and border security is a key priority for the president, who declared a national emergency at the US frontier with Mexico on Monday, the first day of his new term.

“She served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service to our nation,” acting DHS secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a message to the Coast Guard, which is one of the five US military branches.

Fagan had led the Coast Guard since 2022, and previously held posts including vice commandant of the service.

She “served on all seven continents, from the snows of Ross Island, Antarctica to the heart of Africa, from Tokyo to Geneva, and in many ports along the way,” according to an archived version of her biography, which is no longer available on the Coast Guard website.

January 21, 2025 0 comments

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