President Donald Trump speaks at a Hurricane Helene recovery briefing in a hangar at the Asheville Regional Airport in Fletcher, N.C., on Jan. 24, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
BOGOTA, Colombia—The White House claimed victory in a showdown with Colombia over accepting flights of deported illegal immigrants from the United States on Sunday, hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and other sanctions on the longtime U.S. partner.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a late Sunday statement that 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.”
Leavitt said the tariff orders—which would have put in place 25 percent tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, and then raised to 50 percent in one week—will be “held in reserve, and not signed.” But Leavitt said Trump would maintain visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections of goods from the country, “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Colombian government.
