About 103 Kenyans living in the US were deported in the year ending December 2017, punctuating Donald Trump’s first year as the President.
Compared to 2016 when 63 Kenyans were deported, the high number of deportees last year significantly reflects an exponential increase in African deportations.
In 2017 fiscal year ending September 30, the total number of those banished from US was 2, 134 all from sub-Saharan countries.
This was more than double the number of those expelled within the same time frame in 2016 where 920 individuals were expelled.
Of the 8 African states targeted by Trump’s crackdown on unauthorized immigrants, Somalia was hardest hit with its citizens expelled from the US.
Last year, 521 Somali nationals were expelled compared to 198 in 2016.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) however, noted that a total of 226,119 unauthorized immigrants were deported in fiscal 2017, compared to 240,225 in 2016, reports Daily Nation.
ICE in official terms explains the removal of unauthorized immigrants as further quoted by Daily Nation as “the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States based on an order of removal.”
The agency attributes the reduction of removals of unauthorized immigrants on better control on US borders Mexicans and Central Americans were apprehended as they attempted to cross unlawfully into the United States.
“Overall removals are down because the border is under better control than it has been in 45 years,” ICE deputy director Thomas Homan said at a news conference last year.
African removals from the US have been on the increase as more immigrants without papers are being arrested inside the US while those who managed to get cleared at the border for entry are being removed for overstaying their visas which is a breach of US immigration law.
A backlog of more than 600,000 cases has hit the US federal immigration court system according to the Washington Post.
There are hundreds of appeals against removal orders some of which are sponsored by US-based immigrant advocacy groups that are getting their funding from quarters opposed to Trump’s policy.
Nonetheless, ICE removals have slowed down compared to retired President Barrack Obama’s tenure where his administration hit a record high of 410,000 removals in 2012 earning him the title “deporter in Chief”.