A social media user has claimed that United States President Donald Trump plans to deport 3.7 million Nigerians.
The claim, made on Monday — the same day as Trump’s inauguration — said the deportations would be on Tuesday.
“My goat Donald Trump is deporting all of these people tomorrow Look who is number 1 on the list,” @Zaddy_Bruh, the X user who had a Russian flag next to his username, tweeted to his followers.
Nigeria topped the eight-country list with 3.7 million slated deportees; next was Zimbabwe with 765,000, Ghana with 1.2 million, Mozambique with 123,000, and Bangladesh with 1.9 million.
Other countries listed were Brazil with 6.9 million, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with 2.1 million, and Mexico with 17.8 million.
The countries were not listed chronologically regarding the alleged deportees but Nigeria was named first.
So far, the tweet has gathered 2.7 million views, 16,000 likes, 2000 retweets, 1400 bookmarks, and 1300 comments mostly expressing fear about the purported planned action.
VERIFICATION
Before winning the presidential election in November, Trump said controlling immigration would be one of his priorities.
The US president has often referred to illegal immigrants as aliens who drive up crime rates in the US.
During his inauguration, he announced some executive orders that would be immediately implemented on his first day in office.
Among these was declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and ordering the deployment of troops to enhance border security.
“All illegal entry will immediately be halted. And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said.
The president also said his administration reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” programme, which required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico during their US immigration proceedings.
Trump did not mention any other country but his feelings toward illegal immigrants were made obvious.
According to a 2024 Migration Policy Institute (MPI) report, nearly 46.2 million immigrants live in the US.
The report’s statistics came from the US Census Bureau (using its 2022 American Community Survey [ACS], 2023 Current Population Survey [CPS], and 2000 decennial census) and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The latest data from the DHS showed that Mexicans accounted for 4.81 million in 2022, representing the largest unauthorised immigrant group.
After Mexico, the next largest illegal immigrant populations were from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Other countries on the top 10 list included the Philippines, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, India, and China.
As of 2023, data from the United States Census Bureau showed that the population of Nigerians in the country is 604,077.
It is also important to note that deportation from the US follows a process that cannot be achieved in a day as the social media user claimed.
The foreign national may be held in a detention center by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before trial or deportation.
After a non-citizen is detained, they may appear before a judge in immigration court during the deportation process.
In addition, no US government statement has been issued to verify the tweet claiming 3.7 million Nigerians will be deported. There is also no report on that effect on credible US media outlets.
VERDICT
There is no evidence to support the claim that Trump has ordered the deportation of certain nationalities from the US.
