President Gustavo Petro said Bogotá would block US deportation flights until migrants were guaranteed “dignified treatment”.
US President Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs and visa restrictions on Colombia after Bogotá rejected two US military planes transporting migrants being deported under Trump’s immigration crackdown.
President Trump said on Sunday on his social media platform Truth Social that the United States will impose a 25% “emergency tariff” on Colombia on all goods imported into the United States, followed by a 50% tariff within a week. I wrote that I plan to raise it to .
He added that the administration would impose “travel bans and immediate visa cancellations” and “visa sanctions” on government employees, their families and supporters.
The threat comes after Colombian President Gustavo Petro said his government would not accept planes carrying migrants until it created a protocol to treat migrants expelled from the United States with “dignity.” I woke up.
Petro made the announcement in two X posts, one of which included a news video of migrants reportedly being deported to Brazil walking across a tarmac with their hands and feet bound.
“Migrants must be treated with the dignity they deserve as human beings, not criminals,” Petro said.
“That’s why we returned the U.S. military plane carrying Colombian immigrants.”
Petro added that the country would accept Colombians on “civilian planes” and “not treat them like criminals.”
Earlier Sunday, President Trump’s border czar told ABC News he was confident countries reluctant to take back their citizens would bow to U.S. pressure.
“Oh, they’ll get them back,” Tom Homan said.
If the government refuses, “then we will transfer them (migrants) to a third safe country,” Homan said, without specifying which country would be deemed “safe.”
threat of deportation
President Trump’s threat to deport millions of undocumented immigrants raises the possibility of a conflict with the governments of Latin American countries, where many of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States are originally based. I ended up putting him on a certain course.
During Trump’s first term as president from 2017 to 2021, Mexico agreed to take in non-Mexican immigrants deported from the United States under Trump’s threat of punitive trade tariffs.
However, from 2021 to 2025, under US President Joe Biden, Washington returned to deporting non-Mexican immigrants directly to their home countries.
Two Air Force C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants deported from the United States landed in Guatemala on Friday.
On the same day, Honduras received two deportation flights carrying a total of 193 people.
The government is also using active-duty military to carry out deportations, as part of a series of actions aimed at fulfilling President Trump’s campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.