Colombian president vows to block US deportation flights
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said that he will deny entry to American planes carrying deported migrants. The US has been rounding up criminal migrants and deporting them ever since President Donald Trump took office.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote on X on Sunday. “I will deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory,” he continued, adding that “The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”
It is unclear how many Colombians are currently in US custody and awaiting deportation.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been carrying out daily raids across the US since Trump took office on Monday, with 421 people detained for removal on Saturday alone, according to the agency. Cities targeted included Boston, New York, Newark, and San Francisco, and agents focused on arresting immigrants who had committed subsequent crimes after entering the US illegally, ICE said.
In a statement on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “deportation flights have begun.” Two military aircraft carried 160 people to Guatemala that day, while another three flights to Guatemala and four flights to Mexico took off on Friday.
Media reports initially suggested that Mexico refused to accept these flights, but the White House said that this was due to an “administrative issue” that was quickly resolved.
There are thought to be anywhere between 11 million and 35 million illegal immigrants living in the US. Trump promised on the campaign trail that, if elected, he would thin out this number by leading “the largest deportation operation in American history.”
While all illegal immigrants commit a crime the moment they enter the US by unlawful means, both Trump and his border czar, Tom Homan, have said that this operation will focus initially on those who have racked up criminal records inside after entering the country.
“We’re getting the bad, hard criminals out,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina on Friday. “These are murderers. These are people that have been as bad as you get, as bad as anybody you’ve seen. We’re taking them out first.”
