SEVEN countries so far have agreed to take back illegal migrants deported under President Donald Trump, having been in office for just over a fortnight.
The Republican has proven to be successful in turning the screw on countries to meet his demands for a major crackdown on immigration.
Truth @realDonaldTrumpDonald Trump shared an AI image of himself beside a sign reading ‘FAFO’ – which usually stands for ‘f**k around, find out’[/caption]
ReutersMigrants are escorted across the Hidalgo International border Bridge as they are deported under Title 8[/caption]
X/guyelsterTrump’s deportation planes finally landed in Colombia after a fiery row with the South American nation’s leader[/caption]
The Pentagon has started providing more flights to deport over a whopping 5,000 immigrants held by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.
And while flights were still happening under Biden, the crackdown from Trump has seen deals being made with nations at rapid speed.
The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III is frequently relied upon for tactical and strategic airlift missions – but has now become a mode of transport for taking deportees out of the country.
US Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Hamid Nikseresht said that using the plane delivers a strong message to illegal migrants.
He told Fox News: “With the support of our Department of Defense partners, we’re sending the message that if it takes you 30, 60 or 90 days in some cases, to come to the United States illegally, enter, once you’re found amenable to removal under Title 8, we can have you back in your home country within seven hours.”
While Mexico refused to allow US military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country, President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to reinforce the northern border with 10,000 members of the country’s National Guard.
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 illegal immigrants after Trump threatened to hit the South American nation with tariffs and sanctions.
Trump had planned to slap a 25 per cent tariff on Colombian imports – and revoke the visas of government officials.
The row 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 threat.
Defiant Don later posted a computer-generated image of him standing beside a sign reading FAFO – which usually stands for “f**k around, find out”.
Two military aircraft filled with around 200 deportees were pictured landing in Colombia
ReutersGuatemalan migrants arrive at La Aurora Air Force Base on a deportation flight from the U.S[/caption]
GettyDeported migrants arrive from US in a military plane at Ramon Villeda Morales airport in Cortes, Honduras[/caption]
Bogota soon sent two military planes on Monday equipped with medical staff on board to fetch its nationals in the cities of San Diego and Houston.
The first military flight to land in the capital Bogotá reportedly had a whopping 110 Colombians deemed illegal by ICE onboard, according to El Meridiano.
Trump’s second deportee flight reportedly included 95 Colombian nationals onboard.
El Salvador
Trump is to send deportees from the US of any nationality to El Salvador, including violent American criminals now imprisoned in the United States.
In the “extraordinary” offer from President Nayib Bukele, some of the most dangerous thugs residing comfortably in US jail’s will be flown over to El Salvador to serve their time.
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.
Human rights organisations have slated El Salvador’s prisons
AFPInmates in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre mega-prison where members of the MS-13 and 18 Street gangs are being held[/caption]
AFPInmates are made to strip to just white shorts[/caption]
Rubio was visiting El Salvador on Monday to turn screws on the country to meet Trump’s demands for a major crackdown on immigration.
Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, explaining that his country would only accept convicted criminals and would charge the US a “relatively low” fee.
Bukele agreed to take back blood-thirsty Salvadoran MS-13 gang members residing in the US unlawfully, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce explained in a statement.
She added that the Salvadoran president also “promised to accept and incarcerate violent illegal immigrants, including members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, but also criminal illegal migrants from any country”.
In regards to the country also accepting to lock up dangerous American criminals, Bruce dubbed it as an “extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country”.
El Salvador is renowned for its brutal jails, especially the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre mega-prison which houses some of the country’s most violent gangsters.
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.
Trump invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the White House next week a mere few hours after the plane departed.
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.
India is dubbed a strategic partner of the US through its efforts to counter China.
It also wants to dodge tariffs that Trump has threatened in the past, especially at a time where the US president is slapping other countries with brutal tariffs.
The US is India’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade between the two countries surpassing an eye-watering $118 billion in 2023-24.
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.
US Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Hamid Nikseresht told Fox News: “The take-home message here is, ‘Not today, not today, not tomorrow, not next week’.
AFPUS President Donald Trump speaks about the mid-air crash between American Airlines flight 5342 and a military helicopter in Washington[/caption]
GettyDeported migrants arrive from US in a military plane at la Aurora air base in Guatemala[/caption]
AFPA US Army soldier monitors the US-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas[/caption]
“Do not come to the United States and enter illegally.”
Border Patrol officials explained how the passengers were in the US illegally and were caught between ports of entry checkpoints, smuggling operations or stash houses.
Some of the flight crew on the Ecuador plane were on the flights transporting illegal migrants to Colombia that were turned away by President Gustavo Petro.
The US Embassy in Ecuador shared photos to X of the flight arriving, with migrants exiting the aircraft while being watched by US Army personnel.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the embassy’s post: “We are firm in our commitment to ending illegal migration and strengthening US border security.”
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.
Despite its successes so far, it’s also been reported that one of the military deportation flights to Guatemala likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant.
Honduras
Last week Honduras received deportees on US military flights, with the country beig one of the first to speak out against Trump’s threats of mass deporation.
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.
AFPA Mexico’s Army officer patrols the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico[/caption]
ReutersA migrant runs, after entering the United States undetected through a hole in a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall[/caption]
GettyDeported migrants arrive from US in a military plane at la Aurora air base in Guatemala City[/caption]
It was one of two US military flights carrying deportees that were scheduled to land in Honduras.
The first plane to reach Honduras contained deportees that had been held in detention centers after illegally crossing the US border, officials said.
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 their citizens.
Venezuela’s government has so far not confirmed any agreement.
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.
TikTok, gender debate & JFK truth – the rest of Trump’s to-do list
BY Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
JFK ASSASSINATION
Trump promised to declassify a slew of classified documents on the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
During his first term, Trump did release some documents related to the fatal shooting of JFK in Dallas, Texas, in 1963.
King and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated in 1968.
“In the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr Martin Luther King Jr and other topics of great public interest,” Trump said the day before his Inauguration.
Trump has not specified what kind of documents he hopes to release, but the details of the JFK assassination, in particular, have been a long-term source of debate.
A widespread conspiracy theory has suggested the involvement of the federal government or CIA in orchestrating and covering up his death.
TIKTOK BAN
Trump has repeatedly hit out at the plans to ban TikTok in the US – a wildly popular social media app with some 170 million American users.
After national security concerns tied to its Chinese ownership, the app was briefly shut down across the country.
But mere hours after Trump promised to reinstate it after taking office, American users could get back online.
The app returned quickly, however, lauding Trump as the reason for its return even before his official return to the Oval Office.
He then extended a 90-day period to keep it running.
GENDER DEBATE
Trump has previously vowed to reinstate a ban on transgender military service – something he brought in during his first term that Biden later axed.
“With the stroke of my pen, on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump said at a rally in December.
He is also expected to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
“And I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high school,” he said.
“And we will keep men out of women’s sports. And that will likewise be done on Day One.”
CLIMATE CRUNCH
Trump has also promised to look at the cost of living and visit Los Angeles in the wake of recent devastating wildfires.
He is also expected to overturn President Biden’s climate policies, including those regarding the regulation of pollution or green job efforts.
It could also stretch to a ban on new wind projects or electric vehicle mandates.
He has already withdrawn from the Paris Climate Agreement—just as he did in 2017 before Biden rejoined in 2021.
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