President Gustavo Petro urges undocumented Colombians in the US to return home

 Colombian President Gustavo Petro further buckled to President Trump’s tough new immigration policies Friday — telling his citizens still in the US illegally to “immediately” quit their jobs and return home.

Petro made the public plea for voluntary returns just days after he had tried to block deportation flights, just to quickly cave under Trump’s threats of punishing trade tariffs as high as 50%.

“I ask undocumented Colombians in the US to immediately leave their jobs in that country and return to Colombia as soon as possible,” he wrote in a post on X seen more than a million times Friday.

Despite his earlier humiliating U-turn, Petro tried to sell his change of heart as his wish for the good of his country.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday urged undocumented Colombians in the United States to return to Colombia.AFP via Getty Images

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“Wealth is produced only by working people,” he said, promising loans from his country’s Department of Social Prosperity.

“Let’s build social wealth in Colombia,” read his statement in Spanish.

Petro had initially tried to block jets sending illegal migrants from the US back to his South American country while foolishly making slurs about then-newly inaugurated Trump.

Colombian migrants deported from the US arriving in Bogota, Jan 28

Colombian migrants deported from the US arriving in Bogota, Jan 28

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He quickly caved under the tariff threats, allowing the deportations flights to resume — and even offering up his own military jets to collect them.

Two Colombian Air Force planes landed Tuesday with more than 200 migrants, many of them women and children.

Petro welcomed them with a post on X, saying they are now “free” and “in a country that loves them.”

Petro wrote on X that the Department of Social Prosperity would offer credits to returnees who enroll in its programs.REUTERS

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said none of the 200 Colombians who were returned on Tuesday had criminal records in the US or Colombia.

Migrants aboard the flights were shackled “from our feet, our ankles to our hips, like criminals,” one of the migrants José Montaña told AP News.

Trump recounted the conflict with Petro at a policy conference for House Republicans held at his Doral golf club in Florida Monday evening —  maintaining migrants should be restrained when flying back home for security reasons.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/31/world-news/president-gustavo-petro-urges-undocumented-colombians-in-the-us-to-return-home/