(AFP) – Colombia’s president vowed Sunday to block US deportation flights until migrants were guaranteed “dignified treatment,” escalating a row between Washington and left-wing Latin American governments over US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. “The United States cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals. I forbid entry to our territory to US planes carrying Colombian migrants,” President Gustavo Petro wrote on X.
In a later post, he said he had “turned back US military planes,” without saying when or how many planes were involved. He added, however, that he would allow in civilian US flights carrying deported migrants, as long as they were not treated “like criminals.” The president later said over 15,600 undocumented Americans were living in Colombia and urged them to “regularize their situation,” while ruling out raids to arrest and deport them.
US officials did not immediately respond to Petro’s remarks, but Trump’s border czar told ABC News he was convinced that countries reluctant to take back citizens would cave under US pressure. “Oh, they’ll take them back,” Tom Homan said Sunday in a televised interview. If governments refused, “then we’ll place them (migrants) in a third safe country,” he said, without specifying which countries would qualify as “safe.”
Under Trump’s first presidency, Mexico agreed to take in non-Mexican migrants deported from the United States after being threatened by Trump with punitive trade tariffs. Under Biden, however, the United States reverted to deporting non-Mexican migrants directly to their countries.
– ‘Tied hands and feet’ – Trump’s threats to deport millions of migrants have put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America, the original home to many of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States. Colombia’s warning to Washington came amid outrage in fellow left-wing ally Brazil over the treatment by the Trump administration of dozens of Brazilian migrants deported back to their country on Friday.
The migrants, who were deported under a bilateral agreement predating Trump’s return to the White House, were handcuffed on the flight, in what Brazil called “flagrant disregard” for their basic rights. Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31-year-old computer technician who was among the 88 deported migrants, told AFP: “On the plane they didn’t give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom. It was very hot, some people fainted.”
TV footage showed some passengers descending from the civilian plane with their hands handcuffed and their ankles shackled. Several deportation flights since Trump’s return to office a week ago have garnered public and media attention, though such actions were also common under previous administrations. The White House said Washington sent four deportation flights to Mexico on Thursday, despite multiple US media reports that authorities there had turned at least one plane back.
In a break with prior practice, however, the Trump administration has begun using military aircraft for some repatriation flights, with at least one landing in Guatemala this week. Several Latin American countries have vowed to welcome back citizens, many of whom have been living and working in the United States for years, with open arms.
The Mexican government said it planned to open nine shelters for its citizens and three more for deported foreigners, under a scheme called “Mexico embraces you.” President Claudia Sheinbaum said the government would also provide humanitarian assistance to deported migrants from other countries before repatriating them. Honduras, a Central American country that is also a large source of migrants to the United States, said it was launching a program for returnees entitled “Brother, come home,” which would include a “solidarity” payment, food, and access to employment opportunities.
– David SALAZAR
© 2024 AFP
