The United States of America has deported 642 Ghanaians convicted of various offences, including acts that undermined border control and the integrity of the US immigration system, in three years.
A report on the activities of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in the 2018 fiscal year said the Ghanaians were deported between 2016 and 2018.
According to the report, 94 Ghanaians were deported from the USA in 2016.
In the year 2017, the number of Ghanaians deported from the USA witnessed an astronomical 69.1 per cent jump to 305.
However, in 2018, the number of Ghanaians deported from the USA dropped to 243, a decrease of 25.5 per cent.
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The removal of African migrants went up – in some cases, more than doubling.
Despite a six per cent drop in overall removals, there was a significant rise in removal of migrants from countries such as Gambia, Niger, and Senegal.
On January 25, 2017, President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.
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It set forth the administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities.
Subsequently, on February 20, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) implementation memorandum, Enforcement of the Immigration Laws to Serve the National Interest, provided further direction for the implementation of the policies set forth in the Executive Order.
Ghana and the United States of America are in a tussle over plans to deport over 7,000 Ghanaians from the US to Ghana.
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While the USA said Ghana has since 2016 not adequately co-operated to provide travel documents for the affected persons, Ghana disagrees.
This year, the US imposed visa restrictions from February 4, 2019 as its embassy in Accra discontinued issuing all non-immigrant visas (NIV) to domestic employees (A3 and G5) of Ghanaian diplomats posted to the US.
Consular officers also limit the validity period and the number of entries on new tourist and business visas (B1, B2, and B1/B2) for all Ghanaian executive and legislative branch employees, their spouses, and their children under 21 to one-month, single-entry visas.
As of January 8, 2019, Ghana’s Mission in Washington DC had received 20 applications from the US authorities, out of which 19 had been interviewed by the embassy and 11 travelling certificates issued for their travel back to Ghana.
Those outstanding are as a result of doubt on their Ghanaian nationality, ill-health, and pending litigation in US courts.
Source: The Finder Newspaper
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