Colombia Refuses To Accept Its Own Citizens On US Deportation Flights — Trump Instantly Responds
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with a statement from Colombian President Gustavo Petro in response to President Trump’s retaliatory measures.
Colombian authorities turned away U.S. military airplanes attempting to deport Colombian illegal migrants to Colombia Sunday, alleging that the U.S. mistreated the deportees and drawing the ire of the U.S. government.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro repeatedly alleged that the U.S. treated the deportees as criminals and ordered that the planes not enter Colombia.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals. I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory. The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” a translation of Petro’s statement read.
U.S. President Donald Trump responded with a raft of retaliatory measures, including an emergency tariff of 25% on all imported Colombian goods — to be hiked to 50% in one week — as well as financial and visa sanctions, and travel bans on Colombian government officials, family members, and supporters.
Reacting to a video report that the Brazilian government alleged that illegal migrants deported to the Brazilian city of Manaus were inhumanely treated, Petro said, “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves. That’s why I turned back the US military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants,” according to a translation. (RELATED: ‘There’s Other Ways’: Homan Says Countries Refusing To Take Back Their Illegal Migrants Won’t Slow Trump’s Agenda)
The video report showed individuals who appeared to be handcuffed and to have just disembarked from an airplane.
Un migrante no es un delincuente y debe ser tratado con la dignidad que un ser humano merece.
Por eso hice devolver los aviones militares estadounidenses que venían con migrantes colombianos.
No puedo hacer que los migrantes queden en un país que no los quiere; pero si ese país… https://t.co/U1MmWrNio1
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 26, 2025
“I cannot allow migrants to remain in a country that does not want them; but if that country sends them back, it must be with dignity and respect for them and for our country. We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals. Colombia is respected,” he added.
Trump in his response said in part, “These measures are just the beginning. We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”
About an hour after Trump’s announcement of sanctions and tariffs against Colombia, Petro’s office said the Colombian government “has arranged for the presidential plane to facilitate the dignified return of the compatriots who were to arrive in the country this morning from deportation flights.” It said it did so to show its “commitment to guarantee dignified conditions” to the deportees. It also said it was in talks with the U.S. government to ensure the deportees are accorded “minimum conditions of respect and dignified treatment” while being processed in the U.S. for deportation to Colombia.
Petro later appeared to call Trump a “white slaver” on a post on X and said he didn’t like traveling to the United States because he found it boring, according to a translation. Petro then said he would retaliate with similar tariffs against American imports coming into Colombia.
Trump, a mi no me gusta mucho viajar a los EEUU, es un poco aburridor, pero confieso que hay cosas meritorias, me gusta ir a los barrios negros de Washington, allí ví una lucha entera en la capital de los EEUU entre negros y latinos con barricadas, que me pareció una pendejada,…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 26, 2025
Petro also said some 15,660 Americans were living illegally in Colombia. He called on them to regularize their status and said he supported American citizens who wanted to live in Colombia.
“You will never see me burning a US flag or carrying out a raid to return handcuffed illegal immigrants to the US. True libertarians will never attack human freedom. We are the opposite of the Nazis,” he said, according to a translation.
The deportation of illegal immigrants with criminal records received support among many Americans across party lines, according to a recent a recent poll.
