President Trump is issuing harsh retaliatory measures against Colombia after its leader, President Petro, refused to accept the military deportation flights being used to return Colombian nationals in America illegally to their home country. 

In a statement posted to Truth Social on Sunday, Mr. Trump announced a slew of economic and diplomatic punishments aimed at the Colombian government. The president says Mr. Petro turned around two “repatriation flights” that were meant to return illegal Colombian immigrants to their home country on Sunday. 

“I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people. Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States,” Mr. Trump says. 

Mr. Trump is imposing a 25 percent tariff on all Colombian goods, with the tariff set to rise to 50 percent in one week. He will also order the Treasury Department to impose sanctions on the government, along with “enhanced” inspections of all Colombian goods entering America. Diplomatically, Mr. Trump is also pushing back with a travel ban and revocation of visas on all Colombian government officials and “visa sanctions” for all “Party Members, Family Members, and Supporters of the Colombian Government.”

“These measures are just the beginning,” the president wrote. “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!”

Within an hour of Mr. Trump’s statement, Mr. Petro issued an official statement stating that he would send his own presidential plane to the United States to pick up and return migrants if necessary. He also announced 25 percent tariffs on all American goods entering his country, and, in a lengthy social media post, accused Mr. Trump of attempting “to carry out a coup with your economic strength and your arrogance.”

In a series of statements posted to X on Sunday, Mr. Petro said that he will not allow America to send military planes full of migrants back to Colombia en masse. 

“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals. I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory,” Mr. Petro wrote. “The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.

“I cannot allow migrants to remain in a country that does not want them; but if that country sends them back, it must be with dignity and respect for them and for our country,” Mr. Petro added. “We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals. Colombia is respected.”

Mr. Petro also alluded to what he said were 15,660 American citizens living in Colombia “irregularly,” and suggested that they check in with Colombian immigration authorities to “regularize their situation.”

Other leaders have welcomed Mr. Trump’s flights in recent days. Most notably, Mexico — which Mr. Trump is now threatening with a 25 percent tariff on all goods — has taken in at least four deportation flights, according to the White House.

Brazil and Guatemala have already allowed some American flights to return migrants home, though the Brazilian government lashed out at America on Sunday when Brazilians were returned home in handcuffs. The foreign ministry said in a statement that they needed information about why the migrants received such “degrading treatment” on their journey home, according to Reuters. 

The leader of Venezuela, President Maduro, has said he, too, would welcome his country’s migrants home. “I always say, my dear migrants brothers and sisters, Venezuela is waiting for you,” Mr. Maduro said in a televised address last week. “Everyone will return so we can be happy in this land — working, producing and hugging each other. And you will also have back the most sacred right: the right to party with your family and friends.” 

The migrant flights are a key pillar of the Trump administration’s new deportation plans. At the president’s direction, the Defense Department is supplying C-17s and C-130s for the purpose of sending these migrants home.

In a background call with reporters last week, a senior Pentagon official said the military is working with both the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to deliver “on President Trump’s orders and supporting the DHS efforts to secure our border and enforce immigration laws.” The defense department is planning to assist with the deportation of around 5,400 migrants currently being detained in the United States.