Zimbabwe News Update
bbc
6 min read
The number of Irish citizens deported from the United States has risen by more than 50% so far in 2025 compared to the previous year, figures released to BBC News NI show.Between January and September 2025, 99 Irish people were deported, according to statistics from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit.This compares to 60 deportations between October 2023 and September 2024. A US immigration lawyer told BBC News NI the number had increased since President Donald Trump’s election.A spokesperson for ICE said: “Individuals who are in the US lawfully and have not violated immigration laws or committed crimes have no reason to fear enforcement actions.”
Claire Doutre, an immigration attorney with McEntee Law, said many people were now facing more intense enforcement of immigration law, including Irish citizens.”The biggest change is that we are seeing a lot more people without criminal backgrounds, who have been here for years, getting detained,” she said.She added that many being detained and deported entered the US lawfully but overstayed their visas.”Everybody is at risk right now.”A US Navy veteran whose Irish citizen wife is set to be deported due to two prior convictions for fraud described the recent crackdown as “insane”.Jim Brown’s wife Donna Hughes-Brown has lived in the US since she was a child but faces deportation for two convictions, which he said stems from writing bad cheques for $49 and $22 more than a decade ago.”They keep talking about all the bad people.
Donna is not that person. Yes, she’s made mistakes, but who hasn’t,” he told BBC News NI.
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