(Refiles to add the dropped word “prohibition” to paragraph 1)
By Phil Stewart and Oliver Griffin
Washington/Bogota (Reuters)-Us President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would impose retaliatory measures on Colombia, including tariffs, sanctions and travel bans after the country South America has turned away two US military planes with migrants who were deported as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Trump said Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s action compromised U.S. national security and he ordered his administration to take retaliatory measures.
They include imposing emergency tariffs of 25% on all goods arriving in the United States, which will go to 50% within a week; a travel ban and visa revocations on officials of the Colombian government and its allies; Fully imposing emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions and enhanced border inspections of Colombian nationals.
“These steps are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian government to violate its legal obligations regarding the acceptance and return of criminals they forced into the United States!”
Colombia’s refusal to accept the flights is the second case of a Latin American nation refusing U.S. military deportation flights.
Petro condemned the practice, suggesting it treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform
Colombia’s decision follows one by Mexico, which also refused a request last week to let a U.S. military plane land with migrants.
“The United States cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals,” Petro wrote, noting that there were 15,660 Americans without proper immigration status in Colombia.
Petro’s comments add to the growing chorus of discontent in Latin America as Trump’s week-long Trump administration begins to mobilize for mass deportations.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned “degrading” Brazilians after migrants were handcuffed on a commercial deportation flight. Upon arrival, some of the passengers also reported mistreatment during the flight, according to local reports.
The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 U.S. security officers and eight crew members, was initially scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
There, Brazilian officials ordered the handcuffs to be removed, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to complete his journey on Saturday, the government said in a statement.
The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the United States carrying undocumented migrants deported to Brazil and the first since Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazil’s federal police.
Officials from the U.S. State Department, the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The use of U.S. military aircraft to conduct deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration on Monday.
In the past, U.S. military aircraft have been used to move individuals from one country to another, such as during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It was the first time in recent memory that U.S. military aircraft were used to take migrants out of the country, a U.S. official said.
U.S. military planes carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, in Guatemala on Friday.
