Politics
White House says Colombia agrees to take deported migrants after Donald Trump tariff showdown
The White House claimed victory in a showdown with Colombia over accepting flights of deported migrants from the U.S. on Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and other sanctions on the longtime U.S. partner.
Long close partners in anti-narcotics efforts, the U.S. and Colombia clashed Sunday over the deportation of migrants 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 immigrants 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.
Earlier Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he was authorizing the visa restrictions on Colombian government officials and their families “who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations.” They were being imposed on top of the State Department’s move to suspend the processing of visas at the U.S. Embassy in Colombia’s capital, Bogota.
Petro had said earlier that his government would not accept flights carrying migrants deported from the U.S. until the Trump administration creates a protocol that treats them with “dignity.” Petro made the announcement in two X posts, one of which included a news video of migrants reportedly deported to Brazil walking on a tarmac with restraints on their hands and feet.
“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.”
After Trump’s earlier tariff threat, Petro said in a post on X that he had ordered the “foreign trade minister to raise import tariffs from the U.S. by 25%.”
Colombia has traditionally been the U.S.’s top ally in Latin America. But their relationship has strained since Petro, a former guerrilla, became Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022 and sought distance from the U.S.
Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the U.S. from 2020 to 2024, fifth behind Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. It accepted 124 deportation flights in 2024.
Colombia is also among the countries that last year began accepting U.S.-funded deportation flights from Panama.
The U.S. government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press regarding aircraft and protocols used in deportations to Colombia.
“This is a clear message we are sending that countries have an obligation to accept repatriation flights,” a senior administration official told AP. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss issue publicly.
Rubio in a statement said Petro “canceled his authorization” for the flights when the aircraft were in the air.
Colombians emerged in recent years as a major presence on the U.S. border with Mexico, aided in part by a visa regime that allows them to easily fly to Mexico and avoid trekking though the treacherous Darien Gap. They ranked fourth with 127,604 arrests for illegal crossings during a 12-month period through September, behind Mexicans, Guatemalans and Venezuelans.
Mexico hasn’t imposed visa restrictions on Colombians, as they have on Venezuelans, Ecuadoreans and Peruvians.
Petro’s government in a statement later announced that the South American country’s presidential aircraft had been made available to facilitate the return of migrants who were to arrive hours earlier on the U.S. military airplanes and guarantee them “dignified conditions.”
As part of a flurry of actions to make good on Trump’s campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, his government is using active-duty military to help secure the border and carry out deportations.
Two U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo planes carrying migrants removed from the U.S. touched down early Friday in Guatemala. That same day, Honduras received two deportation flights carrying a total of 193 people.
Colombia is the U.S.’s fourth-largest overseas supplier of crude oil, shipping about 209,000 barrels of oil per day last year, although booming domestic production has reduced the U.S.’ dependence on foreign oil. The South American country is also the U.S.’s largest supplier of fresh cut flowers.
___
Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Post Views: 0
Gov. Ron DeSantis called an immigration bill passed in the Florida Legislature a “very grotesque piece of legislation.” He also insinuated Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson used his influence as a former Senate President to shape the bill.
“I would say, anybody who wants to run for Governor, if you’re not willing to come out now and oppose this swampy piece of legislation, you are not going to get elected Governor in the state,” he said. “I can guarantee it.”
As a rhetorical war between lawmakers and the Governor persists, DeSantis said allowing the bill to become law would make Florida less capable of fighting illegal immigration than it is now. He takes particular issue with a requirement in the bill for law enforcement to work with the Agriculture Commissioner’s Office instead of the Governor on issues leading to deportations.
“We have stopped thousands of illegal aliens coming in on boats in the Keys and off the coast in southeast Florida, working with the Coast Guard,” DeSantis said. “FDLE (the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) just did a bust of these Chinese illegal aliens down in South Florida. Florida Highway Patrol just did a big bust in Tallahassee. We’re doing this as a matter of course. You’re going to kneecap all of that and create a new thing under the Department of Agriculture that’s hardwired to fail, that’s designed to fail.”
The Florida Legislature has predictably suggested otherwise. House Speaker Daniel Perez said the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act (SB 2B) will impose strict penalties on criminals who are in the country illegally, including mandating the death penalty for undocumented individuals convicted of capital offenses like rape and murder.
“We’re all working to end the scourge of illegal immigration and the TRUMP Act helps fully realize President Trump’s vision!” Perez posted on X.
The bill passed Tuesday, but the Legislature has yet to hand it to DeSantis, who has vowed to veto it.
At a Palm Beach press conference, DeSantis shared the bully pulpit with state Rep. Mike Caruso, the only Republican in the Florida House to vote against the bill. Caruso slammed leadership for creating an oppressive environment for Republicans in the House.
“If you don’t fall in lockstep with them, there’ll be consequences,” Caruso said. “Your bills won’t be heard in committee, your appropriations will die. Everything you’ve worked so hard for will be gone in a flash. And that’s your present there, and that’s why they all fall in line.
“It’s sad, because that’s not the way we should work.”
DeSantis said he reached out to legislative leaders ahead of a Special Session this week and was rebuffed.
“I don’t need any credit. Just get the job done,” DeSantis said.
He said too much of the debate has been about personalities and individuals.
“Who cares, honestly,” he said.
Post Views: 0
Former state Rep. Joel Rudman said he knew a run for Congress was a long-shot. But he also felt within hours of being sworn into a legislative term that House leadership itched for a fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he wanted no part in it.
That fight appeared to unfold after DeSantis called a Special Session on immigration, which Speaker Daniel Perez quickly concluded Monday before opening another Session on the legislatively led bill.
“This was an argument waiting for an excuse,” Rudman said. “If not for immigration, they would have fought over new hours for the cafeteria.”
The Navarre Republican told Florida Politics he likely wouldn’t have run in the Special Election in Florida’s 1st Congressional District, where Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis beat Rudman on Tuesday in a Republican Primary, but the first training Session of the year in Tallahassee swayed him otherwise. For starters, he could tell right away that the House seemed primed for conflict with DeSantis.
At a Nov. 19 session only open to Republican lawmakers, held the same day as a ceremonial swearing in of representatives, Rudman said members of Perez’s leadership team stressed several things about what the House would do the next two years, and what it would not do.
First off, the House wanted to firmly establish itself as a co-equal branch of government both to the Governor’s Office and to the Florida Senate. In the latter, that meant House members expected to speak directly to Senators, not simply speak through staff. As far as the Governor, Rudman said one member of leadership said the House “would not be the Governor’s bitch.”
To Rudman, the hostility seemed startling. He considered himself a loyalist to DeSantis, the “most popular Republican Governor in America.” DeSantis’ positions on medical freedom had allowed Rudman to keep his medical license in the pandemic, the physician said.
He also was upset leadership said there should be no caucuses within the Republican caucus. Rudman hoped to see a Freedom Caucus, much like that in the U.S. House, form within the Florida House and focus on libertarian policy. While that already seemed less likely when two senior members of the House, Reps. Mike Beltran and Spencer Roach, opted against serving fourth terms in the chamber, Rudman said the leadership approach seemed chilling.
Finally, leadership told members that Representatives were not “mini-Congressman,” hinting that people using the platform to seek higher office would not have a warm relationship with leadership. That seemed odd on the day lawmakers took an oath in a chamber with former House Speaker Marco Rubio, now the nation’s Secretary of State, hanging on the wall.
“We know there are people who served in the House who went on to bigger and better things,” he said.
Rudman said at the time, he had hoped Rep. Michelle Salzman would continue a run for Congress, but already heard rumors Patronis may jump in with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. That eventually happened, prompting Salzman to drop out and back Patronis. But by that point, Rudman said he no longer had a positive feeling about what the next two years would look like in the House.
“Before that day, I never got an inkling we were itching for a fight or what we are witnessing this week,” he said. “I still love Speaker Perez, and believe he has the potential to be one of best speakers in modern era, loved and respected and certainly has support of his party. But I never saw this coming.
“I’m not sure who is advising him in this, but it puts most of the Legislature in a bad position to try and score points for the legislative body at (the) expense of a person extremely well loved not just in Florida but across the nation, Gov. DeSantis.”
Post Views: 0
Swiss watch exports fall 2.8% in 2024
How Fiserv’s Frank Bisignano became the second-most important businessperson in Trump’s administration
Louis Tomlinson Supports Zayn Malik at L.A. Show After Liam Payne’s Death
-
Entertainment8 years agoThe final 6 ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes might feel like a full season
-
Entertainment8 years ago
Mod turns ‘Counter-Strike’ into a ‘Tekken’ clone with fighting chickens
-
Politics8 years ago
Congress rolls out ‘Better Deal,’ new economic agenda
-
Tech8 years ago
Hulu hires Google marketing veteran Kelly Campbell as CMO
-
Tech8 years ago
Microsoft Paint is finally dead, and the world Is a better place
-
Tech8 years ago
Ford’s 2018 Mustang GT can do 0-to-60 mph in under 4 seconds
-
Politics8 years ago
Illinois’ financial crisis could bring the state to a halt
-
Tech8 years ago
Mobile Google CEO Promises 11 Daydream-compatible phones