Colombian president Gustavo Petro announced on Sunday that he had blocked US military aircraft carrying deported Colombians as part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown from landing in his country.
Mexico had also reportedly refused to receive a similar flight on Saturday, according to US officials cited by Reuters and NBC News.
In a post on Twitter/X, Colombia’s leftist leader wrote: “A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that every human being deserves.
“That is why I ordered the return of US military planes carrying Colombian migrants,” Petro wrote, sharing a video of Brazilian deportees who had been flown out of the US on Friday, shackled at the wrists and ankles.
He added: “I cannot force migrants to remain in a country that does not want them. But if that country returns them, it must be with dignity and respect – for both them and our nation. In civilian planes, and without treating them like criminals, we will welcome our compatriots. Colombia deserves respect,” wrote the president.
In an earlier post, he had already written: “The US must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we accept their return.”
According to Reuters, Colombia on Sunday refused landing clearance for two US military aircraft, each carrying approximately 80 migrants. The planes reportedly had already departed from California when the South American country pulled their clearances.
The flight bound for Mexico reportedly did not even take off after the Mexican government denied permission.
Petro’s comments add to the growing chorus of discontent in Latin America as the US president’s week-old administration starts mobilizing for mass deportations.
A flight carrying 88 deported Brazilians landed in Brazil, but not without triggering the first diplomatic clash between Trump’s new administration and Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The flight, which left Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday, was destined for Belo Horizonte in south-eastern Brazil. However, due to technical issues, it made unscheduled stops in Louisiana, Panama, and Manaus in northern Brazil.
US officials reportedly sought to continue the journey, but the Brazilian government intervened, dispatching an air force aircraft to complete the final leg without handcuffs and leg irons. The deportees arrived in Belo Horizonte at about 9pm on Saturday.
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In a statement issued on Sunday, Brazil’s ministry of foreign affairs announced it would file a formal “request for clarification” with the US government over the “degrading treatment” of the deportees – including six children, who reportedly were not shackled.
Such deportation flights have been ongoing since the first Trump administration signed an agreement with Brazil in 2017. Last year alone, 17 flights transported deportees from Alexandria to Belo Horizonte.
However, the Brazilian government claims that the use of handcuffs and leg irons “violates the terms of the agreement with the U.S., which requires the dignified, respectful, and humane treatment of deportees”.
Deportees told Brazilian media upon their arrival that they were assaulted and threatened by US agents during the flight.
An internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the New York Times revealed that the Trump administration is rolling out a new series of stringent measures to expedite deportations. The directive grants Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers sweeping authority to fast-track removals.
