So the White House has caved and will not be returning Colombians on flights wearing handcuffs or shackles. Trump chaos. I'm sure he is claiming a great victory and his suckers will believe it. The passengers were ditched in Honduras and the Colombian presidential plane is picking them up. The local American expat community was significantly shitting itself. Many of them, so many, are here because they can't afford both meds AND food back in the US on their pensions, not a good Sunday for them. " In a post on X, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., slammed Trump's handling of today's situation in Colombia after Trump threatened tariffs and other retaliatory measures when Colombia refused to accept two military deportation flights. "Trump’s strategy of antagonizing our allies is not smart policy—it just endangers decades of partnership with Colombia. We can’t act like this is some sort of 3D chess," Gallego wrote, adding: "This could’ve been handled with a simple phone call. "
Trump has also insulted Greenland...a cold weather country (most of it is in the high Arctic zone) that most Americans know is too damn cold. One of their representatives from Denmark speaking to the EU Parliament in front of the entire European delegation about Trump's proposal to buy Greenland...he told Trump to "F### Off". Another Politician said - You can always take your Nazi Salutes and go back home. The funny aspect, the translators needed to translated it to the other politicians of other European countries at that Parliament meeting when he could have just gave the middle finger. With that said, I do not have an issue with "criminals" being rounded up and sent back to Columbia by U.S. military transportation. Yet, I became a little suspicious of those so called "criminals" when I discover some of them were "not" criminals...some were documented people who entered the United State...legally but their VISA or whatever had expired or they're waiting to find out if their citizenship had been approved. Some are spouses of U.S. military servicemen and their paper work was filed in a timely manner, marriage documents, birth of their children in the United States, U.S. tax paying...waiting to get mail from the government that states if their immigration to the U.S. was approved. Thus, this may be what is upsetting Columbia that some of their citizens who are not criminals were being transported on military planes with criminals. In the Chicago and the surrounding suburbs...ICE made raids without the cooperation of the Chicago Police. The Governor of Illinois and the Mayor instructed the Chicago Police to not assist ICE and their partners because ICE is also grabbing people who are not criminals and have been working in the Chicago area for many years...some are married to American citizens and have children who are American citizens. Simply, I believe when the President of Columbia said to show their citizens "dignity"...he's not talking about those who are criminals. He's talking about those that I've described in the above paragraph. I remember when my children born in another country. I'm ex-military and a U.S. citizen with multiple citizenships (Canada, France and the United States)...same with my spouse. We notified the U.S. Embassy about the birth abroad of American citizens in reference to our children. It took about 40 days it took the State Department to verify all the documents and they then sent the documents. In contrast, to get their social security numbers, the U.S. Embassy no longer manages that. Instead, its exclusively done by the U.S. Social Security Department. Without a U.S. Social Security number...they could not open a bank account, they could not work in the U.S., they could not get a states drivers license or state ID, they could not get a U.S. Passport, and they could not have access to the VA benefits of my spouse because they were born when she was still in the military... Anyways, you can only get a U.S. social security number after being born in another country if the parents and children are present in person in the social security office when the application is submitted. Simply, they want to see the kids and talk to them. The same as the U.S. Embassy in Canada and France wanted to see the kids and talk to them when we applied for their citizenship for American born abroad. My point, we had the option of doing all of the above in the United States. If all the paper work is perfect...you could be in the United States for several months. Today, there's a different reality, if we were in the United States to do our children's application for citizenship and their social security numbers...ICE could deport them even if we were waiting in the U.S. to find out if they obtained their U.S. citizenship and U.S. social security number. I don't know how the U.S. is doing these deportations but they should at least check to see if someone if someone has applied for U.S. citizenship and their paper work is still in the process of being verified during those several months of waiting. They should not be gather up by ICE and then deported (transported) on U.S. military planes with criminals. For what it is worth, the application process took just several months for my two boys. In contrast, the application process for my daughter took almost 1 year because of a clerical error at the U.S. State Department. We flew back n forth to the U.S. 6 flights...six very expensive flights because they were at the last minute to prevent missing the appointment at the government office. When they told me we needed to fly back to the U.S. one more time with a document we later found out did not exist because it applied to U.S. military families in the Vietnam error... I called my ex-college roommate a Republican congressman. He made one phone call and we received my daughters U.S. citizenship and social security card/number one week later after he fast tracked it without us needing to fly back to the United States one more time. This occurred during the Biden administration. Today, during the Trump administration, ICE could have grabbed my daughter and deported her on a military airplane full of "criminals" if we were from Columbia...ignoring the fact that she's not a criminal, her application for U.S. citizenship/Social Security Number was on standby (waiting for approval) while we waited for a U.S. Republican congressman to fast track our application after too many unusual delays by the U.S. State Department.. They would have grabbed her if we were eating at a restaurant in Chicago's Little Village, visiting a family relative (my mom) at her Catholic church in the North Suburbs, or meeting an academic advisor at a nearby University campus because she just wanted to see what the school was like during the academic year instead of a visit during the summer when there's not many students on campus. Welcome to America P.S. I called the five colleges my daughter is interested in attending...they are telling their international student applicants to not travel to the United States for school visits because of the Mass Deportation. Instead, they're giving virtual visits and mobile Zoom calls to speak to other students already attending the university from your country. Luckily, she has several more years to make her decision about the Universities she will apply to before her last year of secondary school. wrbtrader
It didt not take long for Colombia to come to its senses. Took like 30 minutes. The tariffs and other sanctions have been placed on hold. That is to guarantee that Colombia stops its games.
It's not like CPD doesn't "round up" innocent people everyday. It's part of enforcing laws and gets sorted out after. Typically, birds of a feather...
Once again, the objection was to people who didn't have criminal status being in shackles and so in unsafe (what if there was turbulence or an emergency and 80 people.. MAGA brains too little to grasp this), dehumanising conditions. Trump backed down. He is just claiming victory as usual. His idiots think he scored with what was obviously a set up. Now the over 15,000 Amercians living in Colombia without status, mostly have to be very poor pensioners, sub a thousand bucks a month, are scared. Trump chaos.
Thirteen billion in trade is not that much compared to the GDP of Colombia and especially to the United States. Foreign relationships work both ways and relationships between the United States and one country can affect the relationships with other countries. I heard it said the issue could have been settled with a phone call, not a political spectacle. Wondering if there is a sort of hubris between the Trump Administration and Leftist led countries. Perhaps Trump is looking for ways to apply political pressure on them in support of expanding Conservative influence globally, as the Left has been accused of. Such a strategy is dangerous and can backfire badly as it increases geopolitical polarization and desires to find alternatives for imports. Trump is risking reputational damage to the US that could manifest itself into lower demand for US exports as consumers in affected countries rebel and either seek domestic or other trading partner alternatives, such as China and India. Notably, China equities are up as I write this, and US equities are down sharply.
"Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the U.S. from 2020 to 2024" as well as accepting other flights via Panama. So there has never been an issue with repatriation, the US' paperwork said they were civilian aircraft, they were not and Brazil had a simultaneous fiasco with a broken plane, scores of people, many with restraint bruising and dehydration having to be picked up from the wrong city in Brazil. Well done. “American products whose price will rise within the national economy must be replaced by national production, and the government will help in this regard,” he said. Colombia is the fourth-largest overseas supplier of crude oil to the U.S., shipping about 209,000 barrels of oil per day last year. It’s also America’s largest supplier of fresh cut flowers. “I don’t like your oil, Trump, you’re going to wipe out the human species because of greed,” Petro said. “Maybe one day … we can talk frankly about this, but it’s difficult because you consider me an inferior race and I’m not, nor is any Colombian.”