The flowing tears and bitter words were the most powerful endorsement President Donald Trump could have wanted for his tough stance on immigration. As the law enforcement agencies in America rounded up illegal immigrants, two planes carrying Columbian deportees landed at Bogota airport.
Having emerged from the aircraft with her baby, one young mother was asked by the press if she had a message for others like her. In mournful tones, she replied: “Don’t leave. Don’t go to the US because they’re deporting everyone. The treatment is terrible.”
Trump could not have scripted it better himself. After barely a week in office, he has already had a dramatic impact on the protection of America’s national integrity. That is because, unlike most politicians, he means what he says, as Columbia’s socialist regime found this week. When the country’s left-wing President Gustavo Petro first learnt that the US was planning to kick out around 200 illegal Columbian immigrants, he grandly announced that his Government would refuse to take them back.
In response, Trump warned that if Columbia maintained its opposition, he would impose punitive sanctions, including a 25% tariff on all Columbian goods. The threat worked. With bad grace and a barrage of socialist insults, Petro backed down.
This episode is part of a massive crackdown by the new White House. Immigration arrests have already reached 1,200-a-day, four times the average in 2024, while the southern US border has been heavily reinforced by troops.
Even more significantly, the President has just signed an executive order to turn the military facility at Guantanamo Bay into a mass detention centre for up to 30,000 illegal migrants. Fiercely denounced by left-wing critics, Trump is fulfilling his mandate from American voters alarmed at the destructive scale of immigration.
