U.S. President Donald Trump forged ahead with military deportation flights on Monday, sending another planeload of migrants to Guatemala a day after coming to the brink of a trade war with Colombia when it refused to let C-17 aircraft land.
Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aircraft landed in Guatemala on Monday afternoon after a flight from Texas. A Guatemalan official told Reuters the military transport plane had 64 people on board.
As U.S.-Colombia tensions simmer, Bogota announced on Monday it was sending Colombian air force planes to the United States to pick up migrants that Trump tried to deport. The move, which Colombia said was a “win-win,” cast doubt on White House assertions on Sunday that Bogota had relented to Trump’s demands, agreeing to accept U.S. military deportation flights.
Trump, speaking at his Doral golf club to Republican lawmakers, vowed his unprecedented use of military aircraft for deportations would continue, and portrayed Sunday’s standoff with Colombia as a victory in his immigration crackdown.
“For the first time in history, we are locating and loading illegal aliens into military aircraft and flying them back to the places from which they came,” Trump said to applause.“We’re respected again, after years of laughing at us, like we’re stupid people.”
Monday’s flight is the third to have successfully landed in Guatemala since the start of the military deportation flights last week.
To date, Guatemala appears to be the only country to have received military flights with migrants.
On Sunday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro condemned the military deportation flights as inhumane and revoked authorization for two C-17 aircraft to land in his country after they had taken off from California.
Trump responded immediately, threatening severe tariffs and sanctions on Colombia as punishment.
“As you saw yesterday, we’ve made it clear to every country that they will be taking back the people that we’re sending out … and if they don’t they’ll pay a high economic price,” Trump said.
Colombia issued a conciliatory statement on Sunday evening that ended the standoff.
A trade war could have had crippling consequences for Colombia, which counts the United States as its largest trading partner. That is largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement that generated $33.8 billion in two-way trade in 2023, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
The use of U.S. military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon’s response to Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration last week.
The Pentagon said last week the U.S. military would provide flights for the deportations of more than 5,000 immigrants held by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
In the past, U.S. military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
This has been the first time in memory that U.S. military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, one U.S. official said.
Trump has also directed the U.S. military to help with border security, issued a broad ban on asylum and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.
Reuters