Uzbekistan was the Eurasian nation with the most deportees in 2024 at 572, a more than six-fold increase over 2023’s total of 88, Eurasianet reported on January 6, citing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s FY 2024 Annual Report.
Russia reportedly had 464 of its citizens deported, slightly more than double the number of deportees the previous year.
Every nation in the Caucasus and Central Asia experienced a sharp increase in the number of deportations of its citizens.
ICE organized a higher-than-usual number of charter flights in 2024 to return foreign nationals to their home countries. “These included the first large charter removal flight to the People’s Republic of China since FY2018 as well as large charter flights stopping in Albania, Angola, Egypt, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, India, Mauritania, Romania, Senegal, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan,” the report states.
In June 2024, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers reportedly arrested several noncitizens from Tajikistan suspected of having ties to ISIS, pursuant to immigration authorities. The arrests were closely coordinated with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Of the eight Tajik nationals, ERO reportedly removed three in FY 2024 while the additional five cases remained in immigration proceedings.
Despite the sharp rise in deportation rates, citizens of Eurasian nations comprise only a miniscule percentage of the overall number of 271,484 deportees in 2024. The overwhelming majority came from Central American nations, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.
The deportation trend is expected to keep rising in coming years with Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency. Trump has vowed to overhaul the US immigration policies and target those already in the United States without proper documentation for deportation.
