1 of 2 | Colombian President Gustavo Petro arrives in Haiti on January 22. Photo by Johnson Sabin/EPA
Jan. 26 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs and a travel ban on Colombia after the South American nation’s president refused to allow 160 deportees on two military planes to land in that country Sunday as part of U.S. high-profile deportation efforts.
Trump alleged Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s denial “jeopardized” America’s national security and public safety, and added that the U.S. is taking “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures.”
They include emergency 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the United States from Colombia, which will be raised to 50% in a week, Trump said.
“These measures are just the beginning,” he 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!”
He said the United States is also imposing a travel ban and revoking visas on Colombian government officials.
“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote. “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!
Petro and Trump quickly entered an international tit for tat when, responding to Trump’s knee-jerk tariffs, Petro said he would make his presidential jet available to bring the migrants back to Colombia “with dignity.”
Two U.S. C-17 cargo planes departed from California and had been cleared to land when Petro suddenly revoked all clearances for the planes, each carrying 80 migrants. The military also uses the jets to transport troops.
“The measure responds to the government’s commitment to guarantee dignified conditions,” the presidency said in a statement.”
“A migrant is not a criminal and should be treated with the dignity a human being deserves,” he wrote in a social media post. “We will receive our nationals in civilian airplanes, without treating them as criminals. Colombia must be respected.”
Other flights
The Colombian flight refusal comes a week after Mexico temporarily blocked 160 deportees from landing in that country, temporarily putting a roadblock in Trump’s plans for a “mass deportation.” Mexico has expressed opposition to the plan and to U.S. larger immigration policy.
Petro said these were not the first deportation flights carrying Colombians that the country has turned away.
The United States deported 265 Guatemalan immigration Friday, a day after Immigrations and Customs Enforcement carried out raids on workplaces in New Jersey, according to the mayor and other officials.
Also Sunday, Brazil’s government criticized how Brazilians were treated on a repatriation flight .
“The indiscriminate use of handcuffs and chains violates the terms of the US agreement, which provides for the dignified, respectful and humane treatment of returnees,” the Brazilian foreign ministry said in a news release to CNN.
Trade with United States
Brazil and Colombia are big exporters of coffee, which can be subject to tariffs.
Brazil grows around 40% of the world’s coffee beans with Colombia at 7%.
In Colombia, the total estimated value of goods and services trade between the U.S. and Colombia in 2022 totaled an estimated $53.5 billion, and exports were slightly higher, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
“For those of us who have to pay for our food, and for those of us who are in the restaurant and hospitality industry, for those of us who participate in trade, (the tariff) is going to levy a cost on us, and that is not in keeping with what the American people said they wanted,” Oregon Democratic Rep. Janelle Bynum told CNN.
“We’re taking our eye off the ball in terms of making life easier for Americans,” Bynum added. “We have to lower costs for Americans, we have to lower costs for small businesses, and we have to make sure we keep strong trade around the world.”
Ramping up deportations, arrests
Trump’s designated “border czar” Tom Homan said aircraft will be used every day for deportations. It’s the first time these crafts have been used to transport illegal immigrants out of the county.
“You’re going to see the numbers steadily increase, the number of arrests nationwide as we open up the aperture. Right now, it’s concentrating on public safety threats, national security threats. That’s a smaller population,” Homan told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week.
He said there are 41,000 beds to house migrants and they need 100,000.
“Congress needs to come to the table quick and give us the money we need to secure that border,” he said.
Initial plans say the Trump administration has stationed at least another 1,500 troops at the U.S. Mexico border to bolster enforcement efforts.
Homan was with Acting Attorney General Emil Bow in Chicago this weekend to “personally observe” immigration enforcement actions, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. marshals and the Department of Homeland Security, according to a Department of Justice official.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement made 538 arrests Thursday, 593 Friday and 286 Saturday.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said that he intends to cooperate with efforts to deport those accused of or convicted of violent crimes, but that he will also enforce Illinois’ “sanctuary state” laws, which cooperation between local law enforcement with federal immigration enforcement operations.
“They’re just putting that out there because they want to threaten everybody, get people to step back and let (federal officials) do whatever they want,” he told Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union. “What (our law) requires is our local officials will not coordinate with federal officials on the arrests when they don’t have a warrant associated with them.”