US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would retaliate against Colombia, including tariffs, sanctions and a travel ban, after the South American country turned away two US military planes and deported migrants as part of Trump’s immigration campaign.
Trump’s immediate retaliation appeared to be aimed at making an example of Colombia to prevent other countries from accepting him on deportation flights. It also showed a renewed willingness to use the power of the United States to force other countries to bend to its will.
Trump said Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s refusal threatened US national security, and he has ordered his administration to take retaliatory measures.
It includes imposing emergency tariffs of 25 percent on all goods entering the United States, which will rise to 50 percent in one week; travel bans and visa revocations for Colombian government officials and their allies; which fully imposes an emergency treasury, banking and financial sanctions and improved border checks on Colombians.
“These steps are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on the social networking site Truth Social. “We will not allow the Government of Colombia to violate its legal obligations regarding the admission and return of criminals it has forced to the United States!”
The US president has declared illegal immigration a national emergency and imposed tough measures since taking office on Monday, ordering the US military to help with border security, issuing broad asylum closures and taking measures to deny citizenship to children born on American soil.
Colombia’s refusal to accept flights is the second case of a Latin American country rejecting US military evacuation flights.
Petro criticized this practice, saying that it treats immigrants like criminals. In a social media post, X said that Colombia will accept deported migrants on public flights, saying that they should be treated with dignity and respect.
“The US cannot treat Colombian immigrants as criminals,” he wrote, noting that there were 15,660 Americans without proper immigration status in Colombia.
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Colombia’s decision follows Mexico, which also rejected a request last week for a US military plane to land migrants.
Trump did not take similar action against Mexico, its biggest trading partner, but said he was considering imposing 25 percent duties on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1 because of illegal immigration and fentanyl entering the US.
The US is Colombia’s largest trade and investment partner, the State Department said, and Colombia is also the US’s third largest trading partner in Latin America.
‘Degrading treatment’
Petro’s comments add to growing discontent in Latin America as the Trump administration begins to push for mass deportations.
Brazil’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned the “degrading treatment” of Brazilians after migrants were handcuffed on a deportation flight. When they arrived, some passengers also reported feeling unwell during the flight, according to local news reports.
The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 American security personnel and eight crew members, was expected to land in the city of Belo Horizonte, southeast 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 designated a Brazilian Air Force plane to complete their journey, the government said. in a statement on Saturday.
The commercial chartered flight was the second this year from the US carrying undocumented migrants deported 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 emergency declaration on immigration issued on Monday.
In the past, US military planes have been used to transport people from one country to another, such as when the US withdraws from Afghanistan in 2021.
US military planes made two identical flights, each carrying about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday.