Some Nigerians have gone into hiding and others are returning home secretly over the intensified deportation campaign led by President Donald Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that many immigrants had stopped going to work as Trump reiterated his support for ICE actions.
The sweeping actions, which include house-to-house enforcement raids, have stirred panic, debate and protest, particularly following a series of high-profile deadly incidents involving the federal immigration officers.
The US president kick-started an immigration policy to arrest and remove illegal immigrants immediately after he was inaugurated into office in January 2025,
However, his policy has been met with criticisms by many people in the US and other countries over the cruelty which ICE meted out to immigrants
People who spoke to Saturday PUNCH from the US, said some Nigerians had abandoned places of work and many were secretly returning to their home country.
At least 32 people died in ICE custody in 2025.
Last year is said to be the deadliest in over two decades for deaths in ICE detention.
The Guardian of UK reported that in 2026 alone, no fewer than eight people have died in interactions involving ICE.
The recent cases that have created anxieties were the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti.
There was outrage when 37-year-old Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 7.
Reports reveal it happened during an enforcement operation, and the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide from multiple gunshot wounds.
Similarly, 37-year-old Pretti was shot and killed by the US federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026, during a federal enforcement action.
ICE officials, in their operations, have gone from house to house, picking people to detain and deport, enforcing the immigration law of the Trump administration.
Reports say that about 70,000 people have been detained by the ICE officials since the crackdown began, while 540,000 immigrants were deported to their countries.
A Nigerian woman recently broke into tears in a viral video on Instagram, lamenting the panic and grief of immigrants in the US.
The woman said she was traumatised by the killing of Pretti, an intensive care nurse at Minneapolis VA Medical Center.
She said ICE agents killed any immigrants, whether they were US citizens or not.
“It is very traumatising the way these (ICE) people are treating immigrants,” she said. “President Trump, if you want the immigrants to leave America, tell us. Just come out and say, ‘All immigrants, we want you out, whether you are criminal or not.’”
“These (ICE) people don’t even care. There are a lot of immigrants who are treated like animals, and these people will be telling them, ‘we are citizens’, but they don’t care,” she added in the post which went viral.
While speaking with Saturday PUNCH, the woman, who asked to be identified as Senior Immigrant, said many Nigerians had resorted to online trading in order to earn a living due to the fear of the immigration agents.
Her shopkeeper, who had stopped coming to work since December, and a family for whom people contributed money to start a business after they stopped going to their factory work.
“My girl, who was working with me in my shop, stopped coming in mid-December. The reason was that she was scared for her life because ICE came to my area. The most unfortunate thing was that they came to her area in New Jersey. Since then, she has had anxiety and fear,” she said.
“People are staying indoors because of the fear of ICE. They get family support from those who work. Two weeks ago, someone called me to say that they were donating to support some families, and they requested that I contribute, which I did. That is where people are.
“Many people just stop working because they don’t have the criteria to work. The family I was talking about worked in a factory, and they stopped because of ICE. They started selling stuff from home.
