US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would impose retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs, sanctions and a travel ban, after the South American country took out two US military planes with the deportation of migrants as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Trump said the action by Colombian President Gustavo Petro jeopardized US national security, and ordered his administration to abandon retaliatory measures.
They include imposing an emergency tariff of 25 percent on all goods coming into the United States, which will increase by 50 percent in one week; Travel bans and visa cancellations on Colombian government officials and its allies; Fully imposed emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions and enhanced border checks on Colombian citizens.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on the social media site, Social Social. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the admission of forced criminals to the United States!”
Colombia’s refusal to accept flights is the second instance of a Latin American nation rejecting US military deportation flights.
Petro condemned the practice, suggesting that it treated immigrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, Petro said Colombia would welcome home migrants deported on civilian aircraft, saying they should be treated with dignity and respect.
“The United States cannot treat Colombian immigrants as criminals,” he wrote, noting that there are 15,660 Americans without proper immigration status in Colombia.
“humiliating treatment”
Colombia’s decision follows one from Mexico, which also rejected a request last week to allow a US military plane with migrants.
Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs late Saturday condemned the “humiliating treatment” of Brazilians after the migrants were placed on a commercial deportation flight. Upon arrival, some passengers also reported abuse during the flight, according to local news reports.
The plane, carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 American security agents and eight crew members, was originally scheduled for the city of Belo Horizonte, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
Brazilian officials ordered the handcuffs removed, and President Luiz Inócio Lula da Silva scheduled a Brazilian flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement on Saturday.
New security footage of ICE agents detaining people at a local facility in Newark, New Jersey, is a clear indication that US President Donald Trump’s deportation of undocumented immigrants is on the rise.
The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the United States carrying undocumented immigrants deported to Brazil and the first since Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazilian federal police.
Officials from the US State Department, the Pentagon, US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment.
The use of US military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration issued Monday.
In the past, US military aircraft have been used to transport personnel from one country to another, such as the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
US military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday.