US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would impose retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs, sanctions and a travel ban, after the South American country refused to take in two US military planes carrying migrants deported as part of Trump’s crackdown on immigration.
Trump said that the action taken by Colombian President Gustavo Petro endangered US national security, and ordered his administration to take retaliatory measures.
They include imposing emergency tariffs of 25 percent on all goods coming into the United States, which will rise to 50 percent in one week; travel bans and visa cancellations on Colombian government officials and its allies; Full enforcement of emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions and enhanced border checks for Colombian citizens.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on the social networking site Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the admission and return of criminals it has forced into the United States!”
Colombia’s refusal to accept flights is the second case of a Latin American country rejecting US military deportation flights.
Petro condemned this practice, noting that it treats immigrants like criminals. In a post on the social media platform
“The United States cannot treat Colombian immigrants as criminals,” he wrote, noting that there are 15,660 Americans who do not have proper immigration status in Colombia.
“degrading treatment”
Colombia’s decision follows a decision by Mexico, which also rejected a request last week to allow a US military plane to land the migrants.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry late Saturday condemned the “humiliating treatment” of Brazilians after migrants were handcuffed on a commercial deportation flight. Upon arrival, some passengers also reported abuse during the flight, according to local news reports.
The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 American security personnel and eight crew members, was originally scheduled to arrive in the city of Belo Horizonte in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
Brazilian officials there ordered the removal of the handcuffs, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva designated a flight for the Brazilian Air Force to complete its journey, the Brazilian government said in a statement on Saturday.
New security footage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detaining people at a local facility in Newark, New Jersey, is a clear indication of the ramp-up of deportations of illegal immigrants long promised by US President Donald Trump.
The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the United States carrying illegal immigrants deported to Brazil and the first since Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazilian federal police.
Officials from the US State Department, the Pentagon, the US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The use of US military aircraft to conduct 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, as happened during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
US military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each carrying about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday.
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