US, Colombia reach migrant deportation deal after tariff threats

Women hold letters from the US embassy after their visa appointments was cancelled in Bogota on Jan. 27, 2025. [AFP] The White House announced late Sunday the United States was backing off a series of retaliatory measures levied against Colombia, saying the two countries had reached an agreement on U.S. flights sending Colombian migrants back home. A White House statement said the two countries agreed Colombia would accept its migrants without restriction, including having them sent back on U.S. military aircraft. Colombian President Gustavo Petro had earlier rejected two U.S. military planes and said he would only accept migrants when the U.S. treated them with dignity, including using civilian planes for deportations. The White House also said it would hold new tariffs and sanctions against Colombia "in reserve, and not signed unless Colombia fails to honour this agreement." State Department visa sanctions against several Colombian officials, as well as enhanced customs inspections, would remain in place until the first planeload of Colombian migrants lands in Colombia, the White House said. Colombia's Foreign Ministry said late Sunday it had overcome the impasse with the United States, and that Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo and Colombian Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Garcia-Pena were travelling to Washington for high-level meetings to follow up on the agreement. Colombia said it would welcome its people home and would guarantee them decent conditions as citizens with rights. The statements reversed a fast-evolving series of escalatory statements from the leaders of the two countries, which featured U.S. President Donald Trump announcing an immediate 25% tariff on Colombian goods, which would rise to 50% in a week, and the suspension of visa processing at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota. Petro announced a 25% tariff on U.S. goods in return, saying the United States "will never rule us." "A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves," Petro said. "That is why I returned the U.S. military planes that were carrying Colombian migrants. ... In civilian planes, without being treated like criminals, we will receive our fellow citizens." Colombia is America's third-largest trading partner in Latin America. The row came about after U.S. authorities began arresting hundreds of undocumented migrants per day and sending them back to their home countries, carrying out Trump's 2024 campaign pledge to deport masses of migrants who have illegally entered the United States. "We're going to enforce immigration laws," Vice President JD Vance told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday. More than 1,000 migrants were arrested with hundreds repatriated to other countries, including Guatemala last week, during the first days of the new Trump administration, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the White House. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it made 956 arrest nationwide Sunday. It did not specify how many were part of an operation focused in the Chicago area that was witnessed by several top Trump administration officials, including "border czar" Tom Homan. ICE said in a statement it worked with other federal agencies to conduct "enhanced targeted operations today in Chicago to enforce U.S. immigration law and preserve public safety and national security by keeping potentially dangerous criminal aliens out of our communities." This image released by the Department of Defense shows undocumented migrants awaiting takeoff for a removal flight at the Tucson International Airport, Arizona, Jan. 23, 2025. [AFP] Homan told ABC's "This Week" show Sunday, "There will be more arrests nationwide." Trump authorized sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, and Homan said, "You'll see the numbers increase. They're down there to create a secure border." He said the U.S. is deporting "as many as we can" arrest, with the focus first on those convicted of U.S. crimes and then moving on to detain and deport those whose asylum requests have been rejected by U.S. officials. "We're in the beginning stages," Homan said. About 11 million undocumented migrants are believed to be living in the U.S., a staggering number that most officials believe will be impossible to deport. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, urged his Republican colleagues in Congress to authorize more spending for the deportation effort. "We haven't given the Trump team the resources," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press" show. He said Homan "needs to substantially hire more [immigration] agents. He needs to finish the [border] wall [with Mexico] and technology. He needs to go from 41,000 detention beds to 150,000 detention beds to make this work." "So, to my Republican colleagues, particularly in the House [of Representatives], as we fiddle, our immigration plans are hitting walls. We're not building walls, we're hitting walls. We need to give Tom Homan the money now to execute the plan that he's come up with. And without congressional funding this is going to hit a wall," Graham declared. The Trump administration has stopped taking appointments for migrants waiting in Mexico to request asylum through a mobile app, but Trump's anti-immigration edicts are facing legal challenges. One judge has already temporarily blocked Trump from declaring that he no longer recognizes constitutionally guaranteed citizenship for children of undocumented migrants born in the United States.

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