Colombia hit with retaliatory measures by Trump after rejecting deportation flights

Washington/Bogota — 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 aircraft with migrants being deported as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Trump said the action by Colombian President Gustavo Petro jeopardised US national security and he has directed his administration to take retaliatory measures.

They include imposing emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the US, which will go up to 50% in one week; a travel ban and visa revocations on Colombian government officials and its allies; fully imposing emergency Treasury, banking and financial sanctions and enhanced border inspections of Colombian nationals.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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 US!”

Colombia’s refusal to accept the flights is the second case of a Latin American nation refusing US military deportation flights.

Petro condemned the practice, suggesting it treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media platform X, Petro said Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes, saying they should be treated with dignity and respect.

Colombia’s decision follows one by Mexico, which also refused a request last week to let a US military aircraft land with migrants.

“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as 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-old administration starts mobilising for mass deportations.

Brazil’s foreign ministry late on Saturday condemned “degrading treatment” of 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 news reports.

The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents, and eight crew members, had been originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

There, Brazilian officials ordered the removal of the handcuffs, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement on Saturday.

The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the US carrying undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil and the first since Trump’s inauguration, according to Brazil’s federal police.

Officials from the US state department, Pentagon, US department of homeland security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The use of US military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration on Monday.

In the past, US military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

This has been the first time in recent memory that US military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, one US official said.

US military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday.  

Reuters