The White House has claimed victory in a showdown with Colombia over accepting flights of deported migrants from the US, hours after President Donald Trump threatened steep tariffs on imports and other sanctions on the longtime US partner.

Long close partners in anti-narcotics efforts, the US and Colombia clashed Sunday over the deportation of migrants and imposed tariffs on each other’s goods in a show of what other countries could face if they intervene in the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The White House held up the episode as a warning to other nations who might seek to impede his plans.

Earlier, the US president had ordered visa restrictions, 25 per cent tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, which would be raised to 50 per cent in one week, and other retaliatory measures sparked by President Gustavo Petro's decision to reject two Colombia-bound US military aircraft carrying migrants.

Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation. Petro also announced a retaliatory 25 per cent increase in Colombian tariffs on US goods.

Trump said the measures were necessary because Petro’s decision “jeopardised” national security in the US by blocking the deportation flights.

“These measures are just the beginning,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States.”

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a late Sunday statement that the “Government of Colombia has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”

Leavitt said the tariff orders will be “held in reserve, and not signed". But Leavitt said Trump would maintain visa restrictions on Colombian officials and enhanced customs inspections of goods from the country, “until the first planeload of Colombian deportees is successfully returned”.

Colombian Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo said his country would receive returning Colombian nationals who were deported from the United States.

He told journalists in Bogota on that Colombia would ensure they would be treated with "dignity".

"We will continue to receive Colombians, Colombian women and Colombian men who return as deportees, guaranteeing them dignified conditions as citizens with rights," Murillo said.

America will "no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an earlier statement, adding that Petro had authorised these flights and provided all needed authorisations but then cancelled his authorisation when the planes were in the air.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro. – Reuters

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military aircraft had departed California and were en route to Colombia when Bogota yanked the permissions to land.

The US president declared illegal immigration a national emergency and imposed a sweeping crackdown since taking office Monday, directing the US military to help with border security, issuing a broad ban on asylum and taking steps to restrict citizenship for children born on US soil.

Colombia's refusal to accept the flights was the second case of a Latin American nation refusing US military deportation flights.

Petro condemned the practice earlier in the day, suggesting it treated migrants like criminals. In a post on social media, Petro said Colombia would welcome home deported migrants on civilian planes, saying they should be treated with dignity and respect.

He also offered his presidential plane to facilitate the "dignified return" of Colombian nationals.

"The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals," Petro wrote.

Petro said even though there were 15,660 Americans without legal immigration status in Colombia, he would never carry out a raid to return handcuffed Americans to the US.

"We are the opposite of the Nazis," he wrote.

Mexico also refused a request last week to let a US military aircraft land with migrants.

Trump did not take similar action against Mexico, its largest trading partner, but has said he was thinking about imposing 25 per cent duties on imports from Canada and Mexico on February 1 over illegal immigrants and drugs crossing into the US.

A White House source said that the situation escalated quickly after Petro changed his mind about accepting the flights, with Trump taking "immediate action".

"Absolutely. Yes. Countries have an obligation to accept repatriation flights," the source said when asked if Trump was using Colombia to set an example.

"The United States is simply sending back the criminals that Colombia sent to the United States."

The US is Colombia's largest trading partner, largely due to a 2006 free trade agreement, with $33.8 billion worth of two-way trade in 2023 and a rare $1.6 billion US trade surplus, according to US Census Bureau data.

But Colombia ranks just 23rd among US trading partners, which means it may have more to lose.

Alejo Czerwonko, chief investment officer for emerging markets Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management, said Colombia relied on access to the US market for about a third of its exports, or about 4 per cent of its GDP.

"In addition, the Petro-Trump relationship has started off on the wrong foot, which could signal additional challenges ahead," Czerwonko told Reuters.

Colombia's top 2023 exports to the US were heavy crude oil, gold, coffee, cut roses, aluminium windows and diesel fuel, Census Bureau data showed. Its top imports from the US were gasoline, civilian aircraft, corn, naphthas, and soybean solids.

Growing discontent

Petro's comments add to the growing chorus of discontent in Latin America as Trump's week-old administration starts mobilising for mass deportations.

Brazil's foreign ministry late on Saturday condemned "degrading treatment" of Brazilians after migrants were handcuffed on a commercial deportation flight. Upon arrival, some of the passengers also reported mistreatment during the flight, according to local news reports.

People walk past Colombia's embassy in Washington. – Reuters

The plane, which was carrying 88 Brazilian passengers, 16 US security agents, and eight crew members, had been originally scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

However, at an unscheduled stop due to technical problems in Manaus, capital of Amazonas, Brazilian officials ordered the removal of the handcuffs, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva designated a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to complete their journey, the government said in a statement Saturday.

The commercial charter flight was the second this year from the US carrying undocumented migrants deported back to Brazil and the first since Trump's inauguration, according to Brazil's federal police.

Officials from the US State Department, Pentagon, US Department of Homeland Security and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

The use of US military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon's response to Trump's national emergency declaration on immigration on Monday.

In the past, US military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

This has been the first time in recent memory that US military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the country, one US official said.

US military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday.