The U.S. and Colombia clashed Sunday over the deportation of illegals and imposed tariffs on each other’s goods in a show of what other countries could face if they intervene in the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. The White House held up the episode as a warning to other nations who might seek to impede his plans.
Earlier, the U.S. president had ordered visa restrictions, 25% tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, which would be raised to 50% in one week, and other retaliatory measures sparked by President Gustavo Petro's decision to reject two Colombia-bound U.S. military aircraft carrying migrants after Petro accused Trump of not treating the illegals with dignity during deportation. Petro also announced a retaliatory 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.
Trump said the measures were necessary because Petro’s decision “jeopardized” national security in the U.S. by blocking the deportation flights.
“These measures are just the beginning,” 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.”
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a late Sunday statement that the “Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
Leavitt said the tariff orders will be “held in reserve, and not signed." But Leavitt said Trump would maintain visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections of goods from the country, “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.”
The Colombian government late Sunday said it considered as “overcome” the episode with the Trump administration and Petro reposted the statement from the White House on X.
“We have overcome the impasse with the United States government,” said Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo. “We will continue to receive Colombians who return as deportees, guaranteeing them decent conditions as citizens subject to rights.”
Murillo added that the South American country’s presidential aircraft is available to facilitate the return of migrants who were to arrive hours earlier on the U.S. military airplanes.
