verified — Trust Score 95/100

Original content reviewed

Platform: INSTAGRAM Author: @gazettengr --- Caption/Description --- President Donald Trump’s administration has fleeced over $100 million from tens of thousands of Nigerians in fees for immigration applications deemed as dead on arrival due to an active immigrant visa ban that has been extended to pause employment benefits and permanent residency processing for nationals of Nigeria and 38 other countries, stated a report by Cato Institute, a U.S. think-tank. David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at Cato Institute, described the continuous acceptance of payments for immigration services not provided as the “largest fraud in the history of the U.S. immigration system”. --- On-Screen Text (OCR) --- Trump govt collected over $100 million from 179,000 Nigerians without processing their immigration applications: Cato Institute The continuous acceptance of payments for immigration services not provided has been described as the “largest fraud in the history of the U.S. immigration system”. ADEFEMOLA AKINTADE • MARCH 25, 2026

Claims analyzed (6)

1. verified: The Instagram post by @gazettengr on March 30, 2026, includes an image dated March 25, 2026, reporting on the Trump administration and the Cato Institute.
   The Instagram post is directly observable and the image within it clearly displays 'MARCH 25, 2026' and 'ADEFEMOLA AKINTADE'. Search results confirm a corresponding article from Peoples Gazette Nigeria published on that date.
2. verified: Trump govt collected over $100 million from 179,000 Nigerians without processing their immigration applications.
   Peoples Gazette Nigeria, citing the Cato Institute report, explicitly states that the American government received more than $1 billion in immigration application fees from citizens of banned countries, with Nigerians accounting for about 10 percent, specifically $101 million, affecting no fewer than 179,000 Nigerians.
3. verified: Cato Institute stated a report regarding the $100 million and 179,000 Nigerians.
   Multiple news sources, including Common Dreams, Peoples Gazette Nigeria, and inkl, report on a Cato Institute study published in March 2026 detailing the collection of immigration fees for unprocessed applications, with specific mention of Nigerians being affected.
4. verified: The collection of fees was due to an active immigrant visa ban that has been extended to pause employment benefits and permanent residency processing for nationals of Nigeria and 38 other countries.
   News reports confirm that the alleged fraud is linked to policies like Presidential Proclamation 10998, effective January 1, 2026, which imposed visa restrictions and paused immigration benefits for nationals of Nigeria and numerous other countries.
5. verified: David J. Bier, director of immigration studies at Cato Institute, described the continuous acceptance of payments for immigration services not provided as the “largest fraud in the history of the U.S. immigration system”.
   David J. Bier is consistently quoted across multiple news outlets in March 2026 making this exact statement in reference to the Cato Institute's findings on immigration fee collection.
6. verified: The date of the reported article/image is March 25, 2026.
   The on-screen text clearly shows 'MARCH 25, 2026'. A direct match for the article content and author (Adefemola Akintade) was found from Peoples Gazette Nigeria, published on March 25, 2026.

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