US supreme court docket agrees to listen to asylum case of Nigerian man who ‘cooked for unknown gunmen’

The US Supreme Court has agreed to listen to a federal authorities enchantment over whether or not a Nigerian man allegedly compelled to prepare dinner for an armed group must be barred from asylum for offering materials help to terrorism.

According to Reuters, the court docket agreed on Tuesday, October 13, to assessment a ruling in favour of Izuchukwu Ozurumba, whose legal professionals say he was held towards his will and compelled to work with out pay for a gaggle often known as the Unknown Gunmen.

Court paperwork state that Ozurumba travelled to a distant camp exterior Lagos in 2022 after studying of a job alternative. He started working as a prepare dinner earlier than discovering that the camp was operated by the group, which was believed to have separatist hyperlinks. His legal professionals stated he grew to become suspicious after noticing that some camp members’ actions coincided with studies of deadly assaults and property destruction.

Ozurumba allegedly tried to depart however was prevented from doing so. After six months, he escaped throughout a visit to buy provides and returned to Lagos. His legal professionals stated he subsequently skilled bodily assaults and threats to his life, prompting him to flee to Venezuela, the place the threats allegedly continued.

He entered the United States by way of its southern border with out authorisation in July 2023 and utilized for asylum and different protections towards deportation. An immigration choose, throughout former President Joe Biden’s administration, dominated that the Unknown Gunmen constituted a terrorist organisation and that Ozurumba’s cooking amounted to materials help.

The choose concluded that making ready meals helped the group pursue its targets by assembly members’ “basic human needs”. The choose additionally held that Ozurumba’s declare of compelled labour didn’t exempt him from the restriction. His functions had been denied, and he was deported to Nigeria in 2025 whereas his enchantment remained pending.

In September 2025, a divided three-judge panel of the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the immigration choose’s interpretation. The majority discovered that Ozurumba was a captive labourer whose cooking “provided nothing that the organisation could use or readily divert to plan or carry out its terrorist activities”.

The appellate court docket ordered his asylum case to be reconsidered however declined to direct US authorities to return him to the nation throughout the proceedings. The Trump administration challenged that call earlier than the Supreme Court, arguing that making ready meals for members of a terrorist organisation certified as materials help beneath immigration legislation.

“Providing meals to a terrorist organization’s members is no less a material form of support than providing gasoline for its vehicles,” the Justice Department argued. It additionally warned that the appellate ruling would “substantially increase the burden on the government in excluding aliens with links to terrorism”.

Aimee Mayer-Salins, a lawyer with the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, which represents Ozurumba, criticised the federal government’s interpretation. “At stake in this case is whether the government can use an overly broad reading of the law to shut the door on people seeking asylum,” she stated.

She maintained that the appeals court docket “correctly recognized that asylum should not be denied to immigrants who provided no meaningful support to a terrorist group”. The Supreme Court is predicted to listen to arguments and subject a ruling by the top of June 2027.