Colombia Agrees to Accept Deportation Flights: U.S. Holds Tariffs in Reserve, Keeps Visa Restrictions
On the evening of January 26, 2025, the White House in Washington, D.C. announced that the Government of Colombia had agreed to all of President Donald Trump's terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all Colombians returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay; the tariffs and sanctions the United States had prepared against Colombia would be held in reserve and not signed.
The confrontation began earlier that day, when Colombian President Gustavo Petro rejected two U.S. military aircraft carrying deported migrants and said the United States must first establish a protocol for treating migrants with dignity. Trump responded by announcing an immediate 25 percent tariff on all Colombian goods entering the United States, rising to 50 percent in one week, along with a travel ban and visa revocations for Colombian government officials. Petro then announced a retaliatory 25 percent increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in the late-Sunday statement: "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." She said the fully drafted tariff and sanctions orders would be "held in reserve, and not signed," unless Colombia failed to honor the agreement.
Leavitt said visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections of Colombian goods would remain in place until the first planeload of Colombian deportees was successfully returned.
Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said that night that Colombia considered the impasse with the U.S. government overcome, that it would continue receiving Colombians who return as deportees while guaranteeing them decent conditions as citizens subject to rights, and that the presidential aircraft was ready to facilitate the return of those who had been due to arrive that morning.
(Source: The White House)
Source: The White House
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：被遣返人员登上一架美国空军C-17运输机（2025年1月24日，白宫新闻秘书 Karoline Leavitt 发布）。（美国政府照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons） / Photo: Deportees boarding a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft, in an image shared by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on January 24, 2025. (U.S. Government photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
