African migrants in the United States are being arrested and deported at sharply rising rates under President Donald Trump’s second term, even though most of those detained have no criminal record.
A Capital B analysis of data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows that deportations to African countries are on track to nearly triple this year compared with the annual average during the Biden administration.
At the same time, immigration related arrests of African born migrants have more than doubled, despite fewer than 40 percent of those arrested having any criminal history.
The impact is being felt both in the United States and across the African continent. Countries such as Ghana are struggling to absorb a sudden influx of returnees, straining families and social systems unprepared for the volume of arrivals.
Part of the increase is tied to little known transfer arrangements between the United States and several African governments. Under these deals, countries including Ghana and Uganda have agreed to receive deportees who are not their own citizens.
In some cases, they have accepted people from other African nations as well as individuals from Asia and from South and Central America.
As a result, some deportees have been sent to countries where they have no family, community ties, or legal status. Advocates report that many are held in harsh or unstable conditions while authorities determine their fate.
In one case reported in November by Capital B, a West African woman who was not a Ghanaian national and had been deported to Ghana attempted suicide while in detention under Ghanaian supervision.
Legal experts say the expanding network of transfer agreements amounts to an outsourced enforcement system that shifts responsibility away from U.S. soil while leaving deportees in precarious situations.
Zaria Goicochea of Cornell Law School’s Transnational Disputes Clinic said that outsourcing migration control does not absolve the United States of its human rights obligations. She added that African governments also have an independent duty to refuse agreements that place people at risk.
Her colleague Tara Nouri warned that such arrangements entrench what she described as a shadow system of migration control, weakening fundamental human rights protections.
Organizers with the Movement for Black Lives argue that Black migrants are especially vulnerable. Black immigrants now account for about 10 percent of the Black population in the United States and 7.2 percent of all non-citizens.
The group contends that they are disproportionately targeted at every stage of the immigration system, from heavily policed borders and workplace raids to detention in poor conditions and forced returns to countries where they may face danger.
Together, the rising deportation numbers and the spread of transfer agreements are reshaping African diaspora communities in the United States and raising urgent questions about accountability, human rights, and the long-term consequences of an increasingly aggressive immigration regime.
Courtesy of Capital B
