Columbian president now urging migrants to return home

About two weeks ago, the president of Columbia rejected deportation flights from the United States for illegal immigrants being brought back to his country.

Now, after Trump threatened tariffs, the Columbian president has not only reversed his position, but he is also calling out Columbians here illegally to come back on their own.

Denied

On Sunday, January 26, 2025, Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that several flights of illegal immigrants being deported back to Columbia had been rejected.

The post stated, “I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia.

“This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people.”

After the flights were denied, Donald Trump then announced that he was going to issue a 25% tariff on all goods being exported to the United States, and he would raise that to 50% if the situation was not resolved in a week.

Columbian President Reversal

The tough-guy stance by Columbia’s president, Gustava Petrol, did not last very long. By Sunday night, it was announced that he had reversed course on rejecting the migrants.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced, "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.

"Based on this agreement, the fully drafted IEEPA tariffs and sanctions will be held in reserve, and not signed, unless Colombia fails to honor this agreement."

It was later announced that the Columbian president was going to send his plane to fetch the first batch of migrants that had been refused entry.

Come Back Home

Petro is now kicking up his efforts a notch, encouraging Columbian illegals in this country to come back to Columbia on their own.

He posted on X, "I ask undocumented Colombians in the US to immediately leave their jobs in that country and return to Colombia as soon as possible. Wealth is produced only by working people.

"The Department of Social Prosperity … will seek to provide productive loans to returnees who enroll in its programs. Let's build social wealth in Colombia."

Petro is clearly worried about these tariffs, so Trump has him right where he wants him. This could really open the door to a better diplomatic and trade relationship between the two countries, as Columbia now knows who carries the bigger stick and is quite willing to use it.