After Trump’s tariff threats, Colombia agrees to accept repatriates from US

(WASHINGTON) — Following a tense standoff between the nations’ respective presidents, an agreement was reached on Sunday night regarding the return of repatriating citizens to Colombia from the United States.

Conflict ensued earlier in the day after Colombian President Gustavo Petro blocked two U.S. military flights carrying undocumented immigrants from entering the country.

In a retaliatory response, U.S. President Donald Trump posted threats against Colombia on his social media platform, alleging that Petro’s decision “has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States.”

Trump said in the post that he ordered his administration to place an emergency 25% tariff on goods coming into the United States from Colombia, and he threatened to raise it in a week to 50%. Additionally, he said that his administration would issue a travel ban and immediately revoke the visas of Colombian government officials — and those of all of the country’s allies and supporters. Trump further threatened to issue visa sanctions on all party members, family members and supporters of the Colombian government. Finally, he said that he would also enhance Customs and Border Protection Inspections of all Colombian nationals and Colombian cargo.

Trump said he would use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to fully impose the aforementioned treasury, banking and financial sanctions.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump said in his post. “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!” No evidence has been produced to show that Colombia forced anyone into the U.S.

The Colombia Foreign Ministry confirmed to ABC News that two U.S. military aircraft had been blocked from landing in Colombia on Sunday. It was not immediately clear if all 160 passengers aboard the flights were Colombian citizens.

“A migrant is not a criminal and must be treated with the dignity that every human being deserves,” Petro said in a statement posted on X on Sunday. It included a video of Brazilian deportees handcuffed after landing in Brazil.

The Foreign Ministry of Brazil also issued a statement Sunday asking the United States to clarify the “degrading treatment” of the deportees.

Petro had issued an early-morning statement on X saying that he objected to U.S. military repatriation planes landing in Colombia — although, the country would accept civilian planes repatriating citizens, he added.

But a U.S. defense official told ABC News that the two U.S. Air Force C-17 transport aircraft had been granted diplomatic clearances. Then, when the planes were already heading south, Colombia notified the U.S. that they would not be allowed to land, the defense official said.

In a statement posted on X on Sunday afternoon, Petro offered to send his presidential plane to bring deportees to Colombia in a “dignified” manner.

Mexico has also denied U.S. military repatriation flights from landing there, a U.S. official familiar with the situation told ABC News, while explaining that such flights are not being prepared until after all diplomatic clearances have been finalized.

Like Colombia, Mexico does not have a problem with contracted civilian aircraft carrying out the flights, the official said, and those are what the Department of Homeland Security typically uses.

Discussions are ongoing, the official added.

In an interview on Sunday with Martha Raddatz — ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent and a co-anchor of “This Week” — Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, discussed what would happen to countries that won’t take the undocumented immigrants back.

“Oh, they’ll take them back,” Homan said. “We got President Trump coming to power. President Trump puts America first. Mexico didn’t want the ‘Remain in Mexico’ program under the first administration. They did it. They didn’t want to put military on the southern border. They did it.”

But if countries didn’t comply, “then we’ll place them in a third safe country,” he added.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted a statement on X on Sunday afternoon, saying, “President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of.”

“It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner,” Rubio wrote. “Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air. As demonstrated by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security.”

Later in the evening, the U.S. Department of State added a post saying that Rubio “immediately ordered a suspension of visa issuance at the U.S. Embassy Bogota consular section” and is now “authorizing travel sanctions on individuals and their families, who were responsible for the interference of U.S. repatriation flight operations.”

Tariffs are a tax on imports that U.S. companies pay to import their goods, and the higher costs are largely passed on to consumers.

Trump leveraging a tariff of 25% to 50% could have a serious impact on Colombia’s economy because the U.S. is Colombia’s largest trading partner. According to the U.S. State Department, the United States accounts for 34% of Colombia’s total trade.

But that could also hurt American consumers: The U.S. imported $17.5 billion dollars’ worth of goods from Colombia in 2024, according to Moody’s Analytics.

Notably, Colombia is a top supplier of crude oil to the U.S.

Petro responded to Trump’s threatened sanctions late Sunday, saying in a post on X that Colombia will impose reciprocal 50% tariffs on U.S. goods.

“I’m told that you impose a 50% tariff on the fruits of our human labor to enter the United States, and I do the same,” Petro said in the impassioned post.

Later that evening, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson threatened in a post on X that Congress is “fully prepared” to pass sanctions and “other measures” against Colombia.

The White House issued a statement shortly after 10 p.m. on Sunday saying that Colombia had agreed to all of 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.”

The statement also said that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that Trump had drafted would not go into effect unless Colombia failed to honor the agreement with the U.S.

“The visa sanctions issued by the State Department and enhanced inspections from Customs and Border Protection will remain in effect until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned,” it said.

Colombian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luis Gilberto Murillo Urrutia acknowledged the statement shortly afterward in a video posted to X, stating that Colombia would accept repatriates who are transported back with dignity. He also confirmed that Petro would be sending his presidential plane to retrieve those citizens who had been on the rebuffed military planes, but didn’t specify when that would occur.

The foreign affairs minister said that a high-level diplomatic meeting between the U.S. and Colombia would take place in a matter of days.

“Colombia ratifies that it will maintain diplomatic channels of dialogue to guarantee the rights, national interest and dignity of our citizens,” he said in the video.

ABC News’ Luis Martinez, Selina Wang, Hannah Demissie and Nate Luna contributed to this report.

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