Nigerian illegal immigrants in the United States have drastically curtailed their public activities, including work and church attendance, in response to fears of deportation under Trump’s immigration policies. Speaking anonymously to Saturday PUNCH, several immigrants revealed they’ve confined themselves largely to their homes to avoid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operatives, with one Florida resident reporting losses of nearly $30,000 in failed attempts to regularize his status. Despite these challenging living conditions, the immigrants maintain that life in the US remains preferable to returning to Nigeria, citing their homeland’s economic hardship and security concerns. While expressing hope that various lawsuits against Trump’s immigration policies might offer protection, they describe their current existence as akin to “rats monitoring for cats” before venturing outside.
PUNCH
Nigerian illegal immigrants in the United States have disclosed that they have restricted their movements to public places to avoid being arrested and deported.
This came as they expressed optimism that they would be protected against deportation by the many lawsuits filed against President Donald Trump over his immigration policies.
Some of the illegal immigrants, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, said they had refrained from going to work, church, and public places since Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States as a sacrifice to continue staying in the country.
[…] In separate interviews, the illegal immigrants, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being identified, stated that their difficult living conditions in the US were better than returning to Nigeria, citing reports of hardship and insecurity as their major concerns.
One of the affected Nigerians, who resides in Tampa, Florida, said he had stopped going to work to avoid being arrested by ICE operatives.
He said, “Ever since Trump came to power and acted on his threat of deportation, some of us have stopped going to work because ICE officers can raid workplaces to arrest illegal immigrants at any time.”
Aside from that, the distressed Nigerian said he had also stopped going to church and other public places, disclosing that the only safe place for him was his house.
“I work in a factory with many other Nigerians and Africans. Some other Africans who are also illegal immigrants have stopped going to work. The fear of Trump is the beginning of wisdom now.
“I don’t go to church anymore because it is possible to be arrested there. For now, the only safe place is your house—stay indoors.”
However, he expressed optimism that the deportation exercise would be relaxed after some months.
“We survived Obama’s deportation actions; we will survive this one as well. We hope that the various lawsuits against the immigration policies will slow things down and eventually restrain Trump from carrying them out.”
Asked why he had yet to regularise his documents, he said all efforts to validate his stay in the US had been futile.
According to him, all the systems he tried to obtain valid residency papers didn’t work for him, lamenting that he had lost close to $30,000 in the process.
He said, “I left Nigeria for the US in 2013, and I have been trying to get my papers since then. I was scammed through marriage and other means. In this regularisation process, I have lost close to $30,000. At a point, I wanted to file for asylum, but I was advised against it because I had spent over three years without valid papers. I decided to take under-the-table jobs instead.”
Another Nigerian illegal immigrant in Columbus, Ohio said he stopped going to work for the first week after Trump’s inauguration due to fear of being deported.
According to him, though Nigerians are not the primary targets of the mass deportation exercise, any foreign national staying in the US illegally can be arrested and deported by ICE operatives at any time.
He explained that the first set of illegal immigrants being deported were those with criminal records, noting that the process of deporting others without criminal offences had also begun.
“I cannot assume that Nigerians are not their target now and become exposed to them. No. The best self-defence is to stay out of trouble, and the best way to avoid being deported is to stay out of sight of ICE officers.
“The truth is, Trump’s war on illegal immigrants has restricted our movements. People are mindful of where they go now. The situation is like a rat monitoring the presence of a cat before stepping out. Personally, I stopped going to work the first week Trump was inaugurated, and I have not been going to work regularly since. May we not be unfortunate.
“Going back to Nigeria is not an option—not when millions of Nigerians are trying to japa because of hardship and insecurity. My difficult living conditions here are still better than what is considered ‘comfortable’ in Nigeria. However, we hope that this threat will subside in the next few months,” he said.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, a Nigerian journalist in the US said many Africans in the country were anxious about Trump’s immigration policies.
“If they ask all of us to go back to our countries, we will have no choice but to leave. It is their country. If Nigeria were a better place, nobody would have left in the first place, and many of us would be ready to go back home. But unfortunately, our country has been plagued by bad leadership,” he stated.
According to him, the deportation exercise is more welcomed in Republican-controlled states than in Democrat states.
He confirmed that many Nigerians and other Africans had restricted their movements in various parts of the US to avoid being arrested and deported.
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN PUNCH
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