BOGOTA: Several Colom­bian illegal migrants arrived home from the United States on Tuesday, grateful for an end to a grueling deportation ordeal at the heart of a bitter row between the countries.

Bogota sent two air force planes to fetch some 200 of its nationals, including children, from California and Texas after initially turning back two US military planes carrying the same.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro refused the first planes after taking umbrage at the treatment meted out to expelled Brazilian migrants flown home from the United States last week, handcuffed and shackled at the ankles.

Petro posted photographs on social media Tuesday of his compatriots disembarking in Bogota without cuffs, and wrote: “They are Colombians, free and dignified, and in their homeland where they are loved.” He added: “The migrant is not a criminal but a human being who wants to work and progress, live life.” Carlos Gomez, one of the deportees, said he had left with his 17-year-old son for the United States two weeks ago seeking “a better future.” What he found was not that. “It is not an American dream, it is an American nightmare,” Gomez told journalists on his return to Bogota.

At the migrant detention center where they were held, Gomez claimed the food was “horrible,” the guards abusive, and the conditions “worse than (those of) a prisoner.” Then came the attempted initial deportation from San Diego, with Gomez claiming he and his teenage son were handcuffed and shackled. “He cried to me: ‘Daddy it hurts’,” he recounted.

‘America is respected again’

Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, on Sunday stepped back from the brink of a full-blown trade war with the United States after Trump threatened sanctions and tariffs on exports despite a free-trade agreement between the two countries.

The US embassy in Bogota suspended visa applications.

Petro insisted he would only accept migrants who were not treated “like criminals.” Another deportee, who identified himself only as Daniel, told reporters at Bogota’s El Dorado airport that he and other migrants were roughly treated by deportation officials: their few belongings seized before they were cuffed and chained for one of the rejected US flights “as if we were... wanted criminals.” Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Murillo insisted Tuesday that none of the deportees, including 21 children and two pregnant women, were wanted for a crime in either country.

Petro, a former guerrilla, was the first Latin American leader to defy Trump over his mass deportation plans.

He threatened retaliatory steps, but his resistance fizzled in the face of Trump’s threats and an outcry at home over what many saw as a hot-headed handling of the dispute.

“On both sides, they made mistakes. They insulted each other, and they took decisions that should not have been taken,” Colombian ex-president Juan Manuel Santos said at an event in Washington.

“Fortunately, they ended up doing the right thing, which they should have done from the beginning — sit down and talk.” Trump claimed victory Monday, telling a lawmakers’ retreat in Miami that “America is respected again.” He insisted that “we’ve made it clear to every country that they will be taking back (their) people, that we’re sending out the criminals... the illegal aliens coming from their countries.” Brazil on Monday summoned the top US envoy to the country to explain the “degrading treatment” meted out to its own nationals.

The Republican’s plans for mass migrant deportations has put him on a potential collision course with governments in Latin America — the original home of most of the United States’ estimated 11 million undocumented migrants. Since he took office a week ago, thousands of people have been sent back to countries including Guatemala and Mexico.

While previous US administrations also routinely expelled illegal migrants, Trump has vowed the biggest deportation wave in history. Honduras has called an urgent meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Thursday to discuss migration issues.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2025