Over the weekend one foreign leader learned firsthand about what happens when you try to refuse to accept deportation flights.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro backtracked on his refusal to accept two of those flights after President Trump threatened tariffs and a travel ban and visa revocations for all Colombian government officials.
Ira Mehlman is media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform or FAIR.
"It sort of indicates that the excuse that they had been using for a long time, that we can't send people back to countries that they won't accept their citizens back, was kind of a lame excuse. We do have leverage over these governments, and President Trump immediately exercised that leverage.”
For Petro, the “T” word was enough to reconsider.
“He threatened the president of Colombia with significant tariffs, 25% initially, going up to 50%, and within a matter of hours, the Colombian president decided not only would he accept his citizens back, but he was actually going to send his presidential plane here to take them back."
Mehlman says our president's quick actions send a clear message to other world leaders.
"That the same fate may be in store for you. We have a president now in power who is saying that the laws of the United States mean something, and that they're to protect the interests of the American people."
