Donald Trump's Threats Force Colombia to Back Down and Accept Deported Migrants from the US

Donald Trump's Threats Force Colombia to Back Down and Accept Deported Migrants from the US.

US President Donald Trump has emerged victorious in a standoff with Colombia after threatening a trade war when the country refused to accept deported migrants.

Trump had warned of "urgent and decisive" retaliation, including imposing 25% emergency tariffs on Colombian goods, after Colombia rejected two US military planes carrying migrants being deported as part of his tough immigration crackdown.

Gustavo Petro

However, in a statement on Sunday, the White House announced that Colombia had capitulated. "The Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay," the statement read. Trump had previously accused Colombian President Gustavo Petro of jeopardising "the national security and public safety of the United States" in a post on Truth Social.

Initially, Colombia’s response was defiant. President Petro threatened to impose 50% tariffs on American goods, declaring in a post on X: "Your blockade does not scare me, because Colombia, besides being the country of beauty, is the heart of the world." Trump shot back with a message of his own: "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!"

Trump’s post was soon followed by an AI-generated image of him wearing a fedora, alongside the phrase FAFO, which stands for "f*** around, find out."

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo later announced: "We have overcome the impasse with the US government." The White House statement added that any draft orders imposing tariffs or sanctions on Colombia would be "held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honour this agreement."

There was also a pointed message for other nations: "Today's events make clear to the world that America is respected again. President Trump... expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States."

Before backing down, President Petro had demanded that deported migrants from the US be treated with "dignity and respect." "The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals," Petro wrote on X, referencing the 15,660 Americans living without proper immigration status in Colombia. Colombia's refusal to accept US military migrant flights followed a similar move by Mexico, which rejected a request to allow a US military aircraft to land with deported migrants on Thursday.

In the face of Trump’s mass deportations, South American countries are growing increasingly dissatisfied. On Saturday, Brazil’s foreign ministry condemned the "degrading treatment" of Brazilian nationals on a commercial deportation flight. Brazilian officials insisted the handcuffs be removed when the plane landed, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arranged for a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to continue the migrants’ journey, according to a statement issued on Saturday.

The use of military aircraft for deportation flights stems from Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration issued on Monday. While US military planes have been used for emergencies such as the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, this marks the first instance in recent memory of their use for deportation purposes, according to a US official. On Friday, military aircraft conducted two deportation flights, each carrying approximately 80 migrants, to Guatemala.