After Colombia refuses to take migrants back, Trump imposes immediate penalties on Bogota

Sonia Osorio and Antonia Maria Delgado, Miami Herald on Jan 26, 2025

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Hours after the president of Colombia refused to allow two U.S. military flights carrying deported Colombian migrants to land in his country, President Donald Trump announced Sunday immediate reprisals against the South American nation: A 25% tariff on all Colombian products — to rise to 50% in a week — and the shutting down of the visa section in the U.S. Embassy in Bogota.

Making the announcement through the TruthSocial website, Trump also said the U.S. is imposing an immediate travel ban and visa revocation to “Colombian Government Officials, and all Allies and Supporters” in reaction to President Gustavo Petro’s refusal to let the two U.S. flights land.

“I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia,” Trump wrote. “Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States, so I have directed my Administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures.”

The measures also include visa sanctions against all party members, family members and supporters of the Colombian government and increased customs and border protection inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo.

While announcing that his administration will also impose banking and financial sanctions on Colombia, Trump warned even harsher sanctions could follow. “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!,” he wrote.

Trump’s reaction came after Petro refused to allow two U.S. military jets loaded with deported Colombian nationals, already in flight, to land in the South American country.

“The U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals. I disallow the entry of American planes with Colombian migrants into our territory,” Petro wrote on his X account. “That is why I made the U.S. military planes that came with Colombian migrants return,” he reported, without detailing when it happened and how many Colombians were on the aircraft.

The Colombian media outlet RCN Noticias reported that the U.S. had attempted to transport 160 migrants in two military planes. Petro said the migrants were being treated as criminals and that while Colombia cannot force a nation to keep the immigrants if it does not want them, the deportations must be done with “dignity and respect for them and for our country. In civilian planes, without treating them like criminals, we will receive our compatriots. Colombia is to be respected.”

Reacting to the decision by the Trump administration to close the U.S. visa section of the embassy in Colombia, Petro said there are thousands of Americans living in Colombia without proper documentation. He said that there are 15,660 Americans living in Colombia illegally and that they should “approach our immigration service to regularize their situation.”

“The American citizens who wish to do so can be in Colombia. I believe in human freedom. But more than 15,666 are illegal and by Colombian laws they must legalize their stay,” he said on social media.

He assured his social media audience that he will never be seen burning a “gringo flag or doing a raid to return the illegals in handcuffs to the U.S. True libertarians will never attack human freedom. We are the opposite of the Nazis.”

Petro said the dignity of countries in Latin America comes first, that migrants are human beings and have of rights that must be respected.

On Saturday the Brazilian government complained about the treatment of immigrants deported from the United States, saying Brazilian immigrants returning to their country had been handcuffed while on the U.S. planes that transported them.

Brazilian Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski ordered Brazilian authorities to ask U.S. agents in charge of transporting and guarding immigrants to “immediately” remove the handcuffs after a plane carrying Brazilians made a stopover in Manaus.

The plane was carrying about 80 Brazilians last Friday when it made the stopover and Brazilian authorities noticed that their arms and legs had been cuffed.

The deportations of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. began shortly after Trump took office Monday and signed several executive orders to stop illegal entry into the United States, especially through the Mexican border.

During his presidential campaign, Trump said he would order mass deportations in addition to eliminating programs that were implemented during the Biden administration, including humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

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