By Priscilla Aklorbortu
A report on the activities of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in the 2018 fiscal year shows that 642 Ghanaians were deported from the United States between 2016 and 2018.
The Ghanaians were convicted of various offences, including acts that undermined border control and the integrity of the US immigration system.
According to the report, 94 Ghanaians were deported from the USA in 2016, 305 in 2017 and 243 in 2018 .
Ghana and the United States of America are in a tussle over plans to deport over 7,000 Ghanaians from the US to Ghana. 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 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.
It said since July 2016, the US government had engaged with the government of Ghana in both Washington DC and Accra on the matter without much success.
On January 25, 2017, President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States. It set forth the administration’s immigration enforcement and removal priorities.
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