Through MANUEL RUEDA, MARKO ALVAREZ and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Related Press
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian migrants returning house Tuesday on Colombian army flights described being shackled all the way through previous U.S. flights that have been blocked through their nation’s chief in a dispute with President Donald Trump that almost sparked a business conflict.
Deportation flights between the U.S. and Colombia resumed Tuesday after the diplomatic drama over the weekend that supplied clues as to how the Trump management would handle international locations blocking off large-scale plans to deport migrants who entered illegally.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro to begin with refused to just accept two U.S. army planes with migrants, prompting Trump to threaten 25% price lists on Colombian exports and different sanctions. Colombia then relented and stated it will settle for the migrants, however fly them on Colombian army flights that Petro stated would ensure them dignity.
Two Colombian air power planes landed Tuesday in Bogota with greater than 200 of the migrants, lots of them girls and youngsters. Petro welcomed them with a submit on X announcing they’re now “unfastened” and “in a rustic that loves them.”
“Migrants don’t seem to be criminals,” Petro wrote. “They’re human beings who wish to paintings and get forward in existence.”
Some of the migrants, José Montaña of Medellín, stated they have been installed chains at the previous U.S. flights. “We have been shackled from our ft, our ankles to our hips, like criminals,” Montaña stated. “There have been girls whose children needed to see their mothers shackled like they have been drug traffickers.”
One of the migrants informed newshounds they’d been in the USA for not up to two weeks, spending maximum in their time in detention facilities.
“We went for the American dream, and we ended up residing the American nightmare” stated Carlos Gómez, a migrant from the town of Barranquilla who left Colombia two weeks in the past, flew to Mexico, and crossed the border illegally into California, with the assistance of smugglers.
On Monday night time, Trump recounted the warfare with Petro and maintained that migrants must be restrained when flying again house, arguing it’s for safety causes.
“We have been being scolded as a result of we had them in shackles in an aircraft and he stated ‘that is no option to deal with folks,’” he stated at a coverage convention for Space Republicans held at his Doral golfing membership in Florida. “You’ve were given to grasp, those are murderers, drug lords, gang contributors, simply the hardest folks you’ve ever met or observed.
The Trump management has stated that it will prioritize the expulsion of migrants with legal information within the preliminary levels of his promised mass deportation, even though it additionally has stated the deportations may just come with any individual who entered illegally.
It used to be now not in an instant transparent how most of the returned Colombia migrants had legal information.
A deal between each international locations used to be made on Sunday evening to renew the elimination flights, with the White Space announcing in a remark that Colombia had “agreed to all of President Trump’s phrases,” together with the arriving of deportees on army flights.
Colombia despatched two planes from its air power to Houston and El Paso on Monday to pick out up the migrants whose deportation were behind schedule over the weekend, in addition to dozens of others who had deportations pending. In overall, 201 migrants have been transported to Bogota on Tuesday, consistent with Colombia’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs.
Ultimate yr, Colombia had won greater than 120 deportation flights, however the ones have been constitution flights operated through U.S. govt contractors.
Wolfram Díaz, a migrant from Bucaramanga, Colombia who were within the U.S. for not up to two weeks, stated U.S. officers had them board a C-130 Hercules shackled.
“It used to be on its option to Colombia, however I’m really not certain what took place. We have been grew to become again,” he stated, including that they have been saved with handcuffs up till the instant they have been transferred to the custody of Colombian officers.
Gómez, the migrant who left Colombia two weeks in the past, stated that he grew to become himself to U.S. Border Patrol brokers, and asked an asylum listening to. However he used to be held for seven days in detention facilities, earlier than he used to be deported. He made the adventure along with his 17-year-old son.
“We best need a greater long run for our youngsters,” Gómez stated.
Gomez Licon reported from Castle Lauderdale, Florida. Related Press
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