Columbia refugee flights

 On Sunday (January 26) two planes carrying Columbians being deported from the United States were barred from landing in Columbia and instead landed in Honduras (where they were met and picked up by the Columbian presidential plane). President Trump responded by threatening to place tariffs on Columbian exports to the US (including about $6b of crude oil, $1.8b of coffee and $1.6b of cut flowers). Columbian’s socialist President Gustavo Petro countered with his own tariff threats. By Sunday evening an agreement was reached between the two countries.

This is another example of Republican spin (like the three I wrote about yesterday) making Donald Trump out as the hero.

A Whitehouse statement read: “The government of Columbia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Columbia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft…” and “Today’s events make clear to the world that America is respected again” adding that the threatened tariffs and sanctions would be “held in reserve…unless Columbia fails to honor this agreement”.

Mainstream news repeated this idea, at least at first glance. Headlines read “Columbia backs down on accepting deportees on military planes after Trump’s tariffs threat” (CNN); and “Columbia agrees to accept deportation flights after Trump threatens tariffs” (NYT). Even BBC had “Columbia yields on US deportation flights to avert trade war”. Reuters was only slightly more accurate with “US, Columbia reach deal on deportations; tariff, sanctions put on hold”.

The impression given in the Whitehouse statements is that Columbia dared to thwart the US on accepting deported migrants, Trump threatened them, and they caved. The impression was also given that these deportations began with Trump - Leavitt announced that “deportation flights have begun”. Another impression in the news was that the caving was all on Columbia’s side. In fact none of these are accurate.

Now for the rest of the story: Columbia and the US had an existing agreement for deportations under President Biden, accepting 475 flights between 2020 and 2024, with an average of more than two per week during 2024. In fact all the deportees in this week’s case were arrested and detained under the Biden administration.

The Biden administration used commercial and charter flights while Trump’s used military planes. Part of the agreement between Columbia and the Biden administration was that sufficient notice of flights would be provided and that the migrants be treated with dignity and not shackled. Trump’s flights were unannounced and with military planes (attempting to land a military plane in another country without notice is considered “an infringement of sovereignty”). President Petro also had a recent video of migrants being deported to Brazil in handcuffs and leg restraints, and expected similar treatment for the deported Columbians. Before agreeing to allow American planes back in Columbia Petro requested and received assurances from the Trump regime that proper notice be given and the deportees be treated with respect, as per the previous agreement.

In addition to the tariff threats, Trump also threatened to revoke the visas of all Columbian government officials and to immediately deport Columbian staff members of the World Bank. President Petro countered by threatening to place tariffs on imported American products which includes over $1b in corn for livestock feed. That would have made some American farmers very unhappy as Columbia is one of the top five export markets for American corn.

Threatening Columbia isn’t a good diplomatic move for America. Columbia is historically the strongest and longest standing ally in South America and has worked closely with the US to control drug trafficking and managing migration. China would love to move in should relations with America sour, and Petra seems open to that idea. Trump’s diplomatic strategies of bluster and bullying seldom work in America’s favor.

Heather Cox Richardson goes into this issue in more detail in her January 27 Substack post (link below). She also explains the complicated pre- and post-pandemic inter-migration patterns in Central and South America and writes about the formation of the new Western Hemisphere migration pact signed by 21 countries after 9 months of negotiations. This pact was working well and brought arrests at the Mexican U.S. border down to levels lower than at the end of Trump’s first administration. This is what “Border Czar” Kamala Harris was working on while the Republicans were hollering “Open border!”.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/colombia-gustavo-petro-trump-deportation-flights

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20p36e62gyo

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-27-2025