President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has sharply criticized the US government’s migration policy under President Donald Trump. In a statement on a social media platform, Petro condemned the equating of migrants with criminals in recent remarks by a Republican official. “The US should not treat Colombian migrants like criminals”he wrote.
In the context of this criticism, the head of state promised to block the arrival of deportation flights from the US in Colombia. He made one condition for such measures by the US migration authorities: “The US must first develop a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”
This announcement from the Latin American leader came after the US authorities had begun massive arrests and deportations of immigrants. Four days after Trump’s return to the White House, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, reported that 538 “criminal illegal migrants”had been arrested and hundreds more had been deported by military aircraft in the US.
The mass deportation of immigrants without valid papers was one of the key campaign promises of the Republican official. After his inauguration, he reiterated his plan to send “millions and millions of criminal migrants”back to their countries of origin. Tom Homan, a high-ranking official appointed by Trump, stated in an interview with ABC News, “If you’re in the country illegally, you’re in our sights. It’s not good to break the laws of this country.”
The unauthorized crossing of the border was described by the high-ranking official as a crime. Additionally, Homan confirmed that the US government has for the first time used military aircraft to deport migrants. This practice will now occur daily, he said.