SEVEN countries so far have agreed to take back illegal migrants deported under President Donald Trump – less than two weeks after he took office.
The Republican has proven to be successful in turning the screw on countries to meet his demands for a major crackdown on immigration.
The Pentagon has started providing more flights to deport over 5,000 immigrants held by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
While flights were still happening under Biden, the crackdown from Trump has seen deals being made with nations at rapid speed.
Mexico refused to permit US military planes transporting migrants to land in the country. However, President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to enhance security along the northern border by deploying 10,000 National Guard members.
This came after Trump shelved his punishing tariff plans for 30 days for Canada and Mexico in a last-gasp deal.
Colombia
Colombia caved and accepted the return of its own migrants after Trump threatened to hit the South American nation with tariffs and sanctions.
Trump had planned to slap a 25% tariff on Colombian imports – and revoke the visas of government officials.
The fight came after Colombia stopped two US military aircraft packed with their own citizens from landing in the country.
Just two hours after Trump’s threat, Bogota did a U-turn and agreed to accept migrants with the White House then dropping the tariff threat.
El Salvador
President Trump has shown readiness to consider a proposal to transfer deportees of any citizenship from the US to El Salvador, a group that may include violent American criminals currently incarcerated in the United States.
Under an unprecedented offer by President Nayib Bukele, El Salvador is willing to accept some of the most dangerous inmates from US prisons to serve their sentences in El Salvador.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Bukele agreed to the migratory agreement that will see US deportees of any nationality locked up.
Rubio gloated that Bukele agreed to the most “unprecedented, extraordinary, migratory agreement anywhere in the world” following tense talks at his lakeside country house just outside of San Salvador.
He added that the Salvadoran president even “offered to do the same” for some of America’s most dangerous criminals currently locked up in the US – despite being US citizens or legal residents.
India
The farthest destination of the Trump administration’s flights for migrants is India, as a US military plane deported migrants to India on Monday.
A US official who spoke anonymously confirmed the C-17 aircraft had departed for India with migrants aboard in another crackdown on illegal immigration.
A few hours after the plane departed, Trump invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week.
Trump spoke with Modi at the end of January when he discussed immigration and placed importance on India buying more American-made security equipment, as well as talks of fair bilateral trading ties.
Ecuador
Over 80 illegal migrants were caught under Trump’s border crackdown and were recently loaded onto a C-17 military plane in El Paso, Texas, to Ecuador.
The plane carried 43 women and 37 men, including several families.
“The take-home message here is, ‘Not today, not today, not tomorrow, not next week,'” US Border Patrol special operations supervisor Hamid Nikseresht told Fox News.
Guatemala
As part of Trump’s national emergency declaration on immigration, he launched military deportation flights that initially saw planeloads of migrants fly to Latin America.
Four landed in Guatemala after Colombia refused to let two of the US cargo aircraft land and instead sent its own planes.
A Guatemalan office told Reuters that the military transport plane that landed on January 27 contained 64 people onboard.
Honduras
Last week, Honduras received deportees on US military flights, with the country being one of the first to speak out against Trump’s threats of mass deportation.
On New Year’s Day, President Xiomara Castro threatened she could expel the US military from the country depending on how the new administration would handle migration.
But on Friday, a US Air Force plane carried over a whopping 70 deportees into the city of San Pedro Sula – around 100 miles northwest of the capital Tegucigalpa.
Venezuela
Trump’s administration is ending protections that protected around 350,000 Venezuelans from deportation – leaving them with two months before they lose their right to work in America.
The termination notice is set to be published on Wednesday and go into effect 60 days later.
While the US doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Venezuela, which limits deportation options, Trump made securing deportations to Venezuela a main goal in his crackdown.
On Friday, Trump’s right-hand man, Richard Grenell, traveled to Venezuela and met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro – which resulted in six American prisoners being released.
After the visit, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Venezuela agreed to receive back its citizens.
Peru
US military planes initially deported illegal migrants to Guatemala, Peru, and Honduras.
But as talks continue to get underway regarding flights being sent to Guantanamo Bay, it’s been claimed that planes there are likely to join another headed to Peru.
