The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving Nigerian national, Izuchukwu Ozurumba, whose asylum application was rejected after he provided cooking services at a camp operated by a Nigerian separatist group.
According to a report by Vanguard, the case centres on whether cooking for members of a group designated as a terrorist organisation amounts to providing “material support” for terrorism under US immigration law.
Ozurumba reportedly said he was forced to cook at the group’s camp in southern Nigeria for about six months from 2022.
He later fled to Venezuela before crossing the US-Mexico border in 2023.
In 2024, a US immigration judge denied his asylum application and ordered his deportation, citing the legal provision barring individuals who provide material support to terrorist organisations from receiving asylum.
The decision was subsequently upheld on appeal.
However, a federal appeals court later overturned the earlier rulings, arguing that Ozurumba’s work as a cook did not establish that he had supported or participated in the group’s terrorist activities.
The court described him as a captive labourer whose duties had no direct connection to such activities.
Ozurumba was deported to Nigeria in April 2025, according to his lawyers.
The Trump administration is now asking the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s decision.
The ruling could have wider implications for asylum seekers, particularly in determining the circumstances under which services provided to a terrorist organisation constitute material support.
The case will be considered during the Supreme Court’s current term, which began on October 5, 2026, and is scheduled to run through late June 2027.
US Supreme Court to hear case of Nigerian deported over cooking for separatist group