U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this week that 80 citizens of Nigeria were deported Friday, including 63 felons with convictions that ranged from rape, robbery and aggravated assault to drug dealing, burglary, forged documents, fraud, and credit card theft. Also included on the deportation flight was criminal alien Celestine Ifeanacho Okafor, a native and citizen of Nigeria who contended he could not be deported because he was a United States citizen despite failing to participate in the required public oath of allegiance ceremony.

Ultimately, the Attorney General of the United States reaffirmed that taking the oath of allegiance to the United States at a public ceremony or before a court is required except in certain circumstances such as when an applicant is permanently incapacitated or disabled, clearing the way for Okafor's deportation. The aliens were deported from the United States aboard a government flight, and they were escorted by detention and removal officers and medical personnel.

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents arrested three suspected alien smugglers in three separate cases, which included 77 illegal aliens, in Texas and New Mexico last weekend. 

On Saturday April 16, ICE special agents arrested Juan Burciaga, 28, a truck driver and U.S. citizen from Raymondville, Texas, Saturday after finding 44 aliens inside a trailer parked behind a shopping center.  U.S. Border Patrol agents received an anonymous call, and forwarded the tip to ICE agents.

On Friday, April 17, Manuel Martinez, 31, of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was arrested along with 14 aliens who were occupying three rooms at a hotel in West El Paso, Texas.  One of the women in the group was pregnant. 

On Friday April 17, agents arrested Leonardo Armando Sanchez-Villagran, 24, at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint south of Hatch, New Mexico.  Nineteen aliens – 14 adult males, two adult females, and three male juveniles – were riding in two 1988 Dodge Ram Chargers. Sanchez-Villagran was driving one of the vehicles. The driver of the other vehicle ran away, and ICE agents are attempting to identify and locate him.

ICE special agents said that the people arrested Saturday inside the trailer had gallon containers filled with water, but they didn’t have any ventilation in the trailer. Under similar conditions in May 2003, 19 aliens died in Victoria, Texas.

The aliens in the trailer paid their smuggler $2000 each and included 31 Mexicans, four Ecuadorians, and nine Colombians. The 38 adult males, five adult females and a 4-year-old girl were traveling to Dallas; one woman was pregnant. All but two of the Mexican nationals were voluntarily returned to Mexico. The citizens from Ecuador and Colombia were placed in removal proceedings, and are detained at the El Paso Processing Center.