Trump is vowing to impose heavy US sanctions, tariffs on Colombia after he turns back deportations
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would impose retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs, sanctions and travel bans, after the South American country turned away two US military planes and migrants were deported as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Trump’s swift retaliation appears to be intended to follow Colombia’s example to deter other countries from defying him on deportation flights. He also showed a renewed willingness to use the power of the United States to force other countries to bend to his will.
Trump said Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s rejection threatened US national security and directed his administration to retaliate.
They include imposing an emergency 25 percent tariff on all goods coming into the United States, which will drop to 50 percent within a week; the travel ban and visa revocation of Colombian government officials and its allies; Full imposition of emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions and enhanced border inspection of Colombian nationals.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on the social media website Istina Social. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the acceptance and return of criminals they have forced into the United States!”
The US president has declared illegal immigration a national emergency and imposed a powerful act since taking office on Monday, directing the US military to help secure the border, issuing a broad asylum ban and taking steps to limit citizenship for children born on US soil.
Colombia’s refusal to accept flights is the second case of a Latin American nation refusing deportation flights from the US military.
Petro condemned the practice, suggesting that migrants were being treated like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, he said Colombia would welcome deported migrants home on civilian planes, saying they should be treated with dignity and respect.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” he wrote, noting that there were 15,660 Americans in Colombia without proper immigration status.
New security footage of ICE agents detaining people at a local facility in Newark, NJ, is a clear indication that US President Donald Trump’s long-discussed deportations are on the rise.
Colombia’s decision follows one by Mexico, which last week also rejected a request to let a US military plane carrying migrants go.
Trump has not taken similar action against Mexico, his biggest trading partner, but has said he is considering imposing 25 percent duties on imports Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1 due to illegal immigrants and fentanyl crossing into the US
The US is Colombia’s largest trading and investment partner, the State Department says, and Colombia is the third largest trading partner in Latin America.
‘Degrading treatment’
Petro’s comments add to a growing chorus of discontent in Latin America as the Trump administration begins to mobilize for mass deportations in weeks.
Brazil’s foreign ministry late on Saturday condemned the “humiliating action” by Brazilians after the migrants were handcuffed on a commercial deportation flight. Upon arrival, some passengers also reported being harassed during the flight, according to local news reports.
The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents and eight crew members, was originally scheduled to arrive in the city of Belo Horizonte, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
However, at an unscheduled stop due to technical problems in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, Brazilian officials ordered the handcuffs removed and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva named a Brazilian air force flight to complete their journey, the government said their trip in a statement in Saturday.
The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the US with undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil, and the first since Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazilian federal police.
Officials at 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 immigration emergency declaration issued on Monday.
In the past, US military aircraft have been used to move individuals from one country to another, such as during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
A US military aircraft flew two similar flights, each carrying about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday.
