Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Sunday that he had stopped a US military plane carrying Colombians deported under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown from landing in his country.
Mexico also refused to take a similar flight on Saturday, US officials said. Reuters And NBC News.
In a post on Twitter/X, the Colombian left-wing leader wrote: “A migrant is not a criminal and should be treated with the dignity that every human being deserves.
“That’s why I ordered the return of US military planes carrying Colombian migrants,” Petro wrote. Sharing a video Among the Brazilian deportees who were deported from the United States on Friday, their wrists and ankles were shackled.
He added: “I cannot force immigrants to live in a country they do not want. But if that country returns them, it must be with dignity and respect for both them and our nation. “We will welcome our countrymen in civilian planes, and without treating them like criminals. Colombia deserves respect,” the president wrote.
In an earlier post, he had already written: “America must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of immigrants before we accept their return.”
Colombia on Sunday denied landing clearance to two U.S. military planes, each carrying about 80 migrants, Reuters reported. The planes had reportedly already departed from California when the South American country pulled their clearance.
The flight to Mexico reportedly did not even take off after the Mexican government refused permission.
Petro’s comments add to growing voices of discontent in Latin America as the US president’s week-old administration begins to mobilize for mass deportations.
A flight carrying 88 exiled Brazilians arrived in Brazil, but not without triggering the first diplomatic spat between the new Trump administration and Brazil’s leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The flight, which left Alexandria, Virginia on Friday, was bound for Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil. However, due to technical problems, it made unscheduled stops in Louisiana, Panama and Manaus in northern Brazil.
American officials reportedly tried to continue the trip, but The Brazilian government intervened.Dispatching an Air Force aircraft to complete the final leg without handcuffs and leg shackles. The deportees arrived in Belo Horizonte on Saturday night around 9 p.m.
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In a statement released on Sunday, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry announced that it would officially “Request for clarificationWith the US government over the “degrading treatment” of the deportees – including six children, who were allegedly not handcuffed.
Such deportation flights have been ongoing since the Trump administration first signed an agreement with Brazil in 2017. Last year alone, 17 flights transported deportees from Alexandria to Belo Horizonte.
However, the Brazilian government claims that the use of handcuffs and leg shackles “violates the terms of the treaty with the United States, which requires the dignified, respectful and humane treatment of deportees”.
Deportees told Brazilian media upon their arrival that they were Attacked and threatened. by American agents during the flight.
An internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by The New York Times revealed that the Trump administration is launching a new series of tougher measures to speed up deportations. The directive empowers Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to expedite removal.
