Colombian President Gustavo Petro blasted Trump’s deportations of migrants, writing on X, “The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals.”
On Sunday morning, President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, claimed in an interview that aired on ABC that international leaders would not reject the Trump administration sending migrants back to their home countries.
“Oh, they’ll take them back,” Homan told host Martha Raddatz after she asked about how the administration would handle countries that refused to accept deportees. “We got President Trump coming into power,” Homan added. “President Trump puts America first.”
“My success is gonna be based on what Congress give us. The more money, the better I’m gonna do.”
Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said he’s “being realistic” and acknowledged that the mass deportation plan’s success will require funding from Congress. https://t.co/TXBuO4BMhg pic.twitter.com/KQFtg1osFY
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 26, 2025
But only a few hours before that interview aired, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, proved Homan wrong: In a post on X, Petro said he would not accept American planes deporting migrants back to his country until the US establishes “a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants.”
Research has shown that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US citizens do.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote in his post. In another post, Petro seemed to suggest the problem was the migrants being sent back on military planes, writing: “We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals.” (Research has shown that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US citizens do.)
Trump promptly clapped back, writing in a post on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon that because Petro had refused to accept two flights already, Trump was taking a series of “urgent and decisive retaliatory measures,” including a travel ban; visa sanctions for members of the Colombian government and its supporters; and “emergency 25 percent tariffs” on Colombian goods coming into the US, which he said will be raised to 50 percent in a week. “These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote.
A notice from the president’s office posted just a few minutes after Trump’s Truth Social message said that Petro was sending the presidential plane “to facilitate the dignified return” of migrants who were supposed to return earlier. The notice also said the Colombian government was working on internal protocols “that ensure the dignified treatment of deported Colombians, guaranteeing that the procedures respect the human rights and integrity of each person,” and that it was also working with the American government to establish such processes. Later Sunday, Petro said he was imposing a retaliatory increase in tariffs, to 25 percent, on imports from the US. “The ministry should help direct our exports to the whole world other than the US,” Petro wrote. “Our exports should be expanded.”
There were 190,000 unauthorized Colombian immigrants living in the US as of 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. Far more immigrants without documentation come from Mexico—about 4 million, according to the Pew data. On Thursday, Mexico reportedly denied entry to a US plane transporting migrants, NBC News reported. A White House official told NBC it was an “administrative issue” that was “quickly rectified.” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and members of her Cabinet said prior to Trump’s inauguration that they did not agree with plans for “unilateral deportations” of Mexicans from the US, but said they would welcome them regardless.
As my colleague Isabela Dias reported, Trump issued a flurry of executive actions targeting immigration during his first week in office. They included seeking to end birthright citizenship (that’s unconstitutional, as a federal judge ruled on Thursday, temporarily blocking the order from taking effect) and sending 1,500 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, even though border crossings were at a four-year low at the end of Biden’s term. “It’s sending a strong signal to the world, our border’s closed,” Homan told Raddatz in the ABC interview, adding that the troops would help coordinate deportation flights and build infrastructure at the border. The New York Times also reported on Sunday that immigration raids were beginning in Chicago.
But for all of Trump’s bluster, even Homan conceded in the ABC interview that he could not commit to deporting every undocumented immigrant in the country, despite Trump’s pledge to enact the largest deportation operation in US history. “I’m being realistic,” Homan told Raddatz.
Update, Jan. 26: This story has been updated to include details of Petro’s response to Trump.
