Colombian President Gustavo Petro urged all illegal immigrants in the United States to return to Colombia “immediately.” He offered to provide “productive loans” in return.
“I ask undocumented Colombians in the US to immediately leave their jobs in that country and return to Colombia as soon as possible,” Petro wrote on X. “Wealth is produced only by working people. The Department of Social Prosperity, DPS, will seek to provide productive loans to returnees who enroll in its programs. Let’s build social wealth in Colombia.”
The statement follows the Colombian government agreeing to President Donald Trump’s demands that the country accept deportation flights.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. She declared that Trump will “continue to fiercely protect our nation’s sovereignty, and he expects all other nations of the world to fully cooperate in accepting the deportation of their citizens illegally present in the United States.”
Trump briefly imposed sanctions on Colombia in response to the country’s initial refusal to accept the migrants.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time, noting that “Petro’s denial of these flights has jeopardized the National Security and Public Safety of the United States.”
“These measures are just the beginning. 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!” he added.
