Washington — President Trump on Sunday vowed swift and punishing retaliation after the Colombian government over the weekend blocked the arrival of deportation flights from the U.S., objecting to the Trump administration’s efforts to use military planes to deport migrants.
Mr. Trump posted on social media on Sunday that his administration will put in place several actions against Colombia, including a 25% tariff — that he said will be raised to 50% after one week — on all goods coming into the U.S. from Colombia.
He also announced a travel ban and “immediate visa revocation” for Colombian government officials and “their allies,” visa sanctions on Colombian authorities and their relatives and enhanced customs inspections on travelers and cargo from Colombia.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media platform 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 United States!”
Earlier on Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he rejected the deportation flights because the deportees were being transported in military aircraft, arguing such a move treated migrants as criminals.
Rebecca Blackwell / AP
“The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them,” Petro wrote on social media. He added that he would accept deportation flights, as long as they were conducted on civilian planes.
Two U.S. officials told CBS News there were two Department of Defense planes with migrant deportees expected to land in Colombia on Sunday, after departing the San Diego area near the southern border. But those plans were scrapped overnight.
One of the U.S. officials said the plan was to deport roughly 80 Colombian migrants on each military plane.
Colombia’s decision to block the U.S. deportation flights over the weekend is an early diplomatic setback for the Trump administration as it lays the foundation for its promised mass deportation campaign and crackdown on illegal immigration.
As part of that crackdown, President Trump has moved to vastly increase the role the U.S. military plays in immigration enforcement, declaring a national emergency to deploy an additional 1,500 Army soldiers and Marines to the southern border. The troops have been assigned to erect border barriers and help Customs and Border Protection in an operational capacity. Long-standing legal limits bar the use of soldiers for the civil enforcement of laws, including U.S. immigration law.
Earlier in the week, the administration used military aircraft to deport Guatemalan migrants who had crossed the southern border illegally back to Guatemala, publicizing the move as the start of their mass deportation effort.
