The US immigration authority has intensified their efforts to enforce the expulsion of illegal immigrants from the country in a move that has affected Nigerians, who are on the list of those pending deportation. In what an Immigration official has described as "the first batch of aliens in what could be a routine exercise," about 100 deportees are being processed for deportation. Ramos Ramirez, an official of the USCIS (Us Citizen and Immigration Services) has noted that those affected in the deportation exercise include felons convicted of serious offenses like fraud, sexual offenses and drug related offenses, and those residing in the US without legal authorization, including expired visas. Reports have revealed that hundreds of Nigerians with questionable or non-existent legal authorization to reside in the U. S were rounded up in raids that took place in various cities including New York, Los Angeles, California, Colorado, Chicago and Denver. The USCIS official has indicated that the agency will be conducting raids on businesses and homes suspected of harboring illegal aliens. “We are not targeting any particular group of aliens. It is against the law to reside and work here without proper authorization," Mr. Ramirez has said. "We are just implementing the law.In Germany, efforts have also intensified to remove Nigerians and other Africans residing illegally there. Officials of the Nigerian embassy in Germany have been accused of abetting in the blatant abuse of the human rights of their own people by assisting the German authorities with these deportation exercises. In exchange, for every Nigerian that is processed and subsequently deported, the Nigerian embassy receives a total of 500 Euros. A human rights organization called the Caravan of Rights for Refugees and Immigrants has organized a series of protest rallies in Munich to raise awareness about and to assist immigrants affected by the practice. They are urging immigrants with shaky immigration papers not to attend the appointments, which the German authorities schedule for them for the ostensible purpose of reviewing their papers. In actuality, once they arrive at the interviews, they are detained for a deportation hearing, while the Nigerian embassy officials serve the purpose of identifying them as Nigerians. In Nigeria, the authorities are conducting their own clampdown by deporting thousands of illegal immigrants who flock to Nigeria from neighboring countries. Calling illegal immigrants a nuisance, the Nigerian authority has been transporting these immigrants to the border with nationals of Niger and Chad being singled out. There appears to be a greater influx of illegal immigrants from those areas, and because the people from Chad and Niger speak the Hausa language and share the same muslim religion, it is easier for them to integrate undetected into the society. The authorities have also cited this cultural affinity as the reason that they can slip through the voting system. As a result, some politicians have been accused of employing them as "ghost voters" to pad the votes. However, the official reason given for the mass deportation is that illegal immigrants constitute a public nuisance and security risk. Olu Adeniji, Nigeria's interior Minister has stated that "only vagabonds and those engaged in armed robbery and other illegal acts were being targeted in the immigration sweep. In another twist, some Nigerian Nationals have reported being erroneously deported
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