Trump hits Colombia for blocking flights with ‘criminals they forced into’ U.S. as raids proceed nationwide

by WorldTribune Staff, January 26, 2025 Real World News

President Donald Trump on Sunday said he would levy severe sanctions on Colombia and impose a 25% tariff on its exports to the U.S. after the country’s socialist president refused to accept deportation flights from the United States.

The government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a defender of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and who joined the M-19 guerrilla group at 17, said Sunday that he had blocked the U.S. flights of deported Colombians, challenging Trump’s policy of removing undocumented and criminal migrants from the U.S.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted to X photos of illegals boarding U.S. military aircraft for deportation flights.

The tariffs would jump to 50% in a week if Petro continues to order the flights not to land, Trump said.

Later in the day, Petro reversed course, and Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said the government agreed to “receive Colombians who are deported, guaranteeing them dignified conditions.”

The U.S. imported $16.1 billion in goods from Colombia in 2023, ranking it 26th—behind Sweden and ahead of Australia—among import partners, according to Census Bureau data. Crude oil accounted for roughly a third of that dollar value. Other top commodities the U.S. receives from Colombia include gold, coffee, bananas, and fresh-cut roses.

In a post to Truth Social (see below), Trump also said he was issuing a travel ban for Colombian government officials and visa sanctions on people connected to the country’s government.

“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 had posted to X on Sunday: “The U.S. cannot treat Colombian migrants like criminals. I disallow the entry of American planes with Colombian migrants to our territory.”

Two U.S. military C-17s had diplomatic permission to land in Colombia when they left San Diego carrying roughly 80 migrants each, the Wall Street Journal cited a U.S. defense official as saying, but that authority was revoked Sunday en route. The planes then returned to the U.S., the official said.

The White House will be using military planes every day to help carry out what Trump and border czar Tom Homan have vowed will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, ABC News reported.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared photos on X of individuals in handcuffs boarding a military plane.

“Deportation flights have begun,” Leavitt said. “President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences.”

Trump has ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and other federal agencies to carry out nationwide raids to arrest criminal illegals.

The New York Post reported: “Executive orders issued by Trump dramatically loosened restrictions on how immigration officers can conduct deportation raids, removing bans for searching courthouses, churches and other ‘sensitive’ sites that illegal migrants have historically holed up in to be shielded from federal authorities.”

ICE on Friday reported arresting 593 criminals in the U.S. illegally and lodging 449 “detainer” requests with local authorities, asking them to turn over migrants targeted for deportation.

Arrests include a slew of pedophiles, drug traffickers, and gang members and a suspected terrorist in New York, ICE said.

“I said from Day 1, no one’s off the table. If you’re in the United States illegally, you got a problem, but we’re focusing on public safety threats first,” Homan, told NewsNation on Thursday.


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