Responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally living in US: Trump govt

Washington: The Trump administration on Monday said that it is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner.

President Donald Trump has "made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a strongly worded statement.

“It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner,” Rubio said, a day after confrontation with Colombia on the issue of taking back illegal immigrants from the US.

"Colombian President (Gustavo) Petro had authorised flights and provided all needed authorisations and then cancelled his authorisation when the planes were in the air," he said. "As demonstrated by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security." On Sunday, Colombian President Petro denied entry to US military planes carrying Colombian migrants.

“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals. I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory,” Petro said on X, a move that angered Trump.

“I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the United States, with a large number of Illegal Criminals, were not allowed to land in Colombia. This order was given by Colombia’s Socialist President Gustavo Petro, who is already very unpopular amongst his people,” an outraged Trump said on Truth Social, a media platform owned by him.

Petro’s denial of these flights jeopardised the National Security and Public Safety of the United States, Trump said.

The US President directed his administration to immediately take urgent and decisive retaliatory measures. He ordered visa restrictions and 25 per cent tariffs on all Colombian incoming goods, which would be raised to 50 per cent in one week.

The Colombian Government immediately responded by saying that it was sending a presidential plane for the dignified return of its people from the United States.

Later in the night, the US paused sanctions and tariffs on Colombia after it agreed to accept all the terms of President Trump, including accepting flights of deported migrants from America, the White House said.              “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 US, including on US military aircraft, without limitation or delay,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

Department of Homeland Security in April 2024 said there were about 11 million illegal immigrants in the US in the year 2022. Mexico topped the list with 4.81 million illegal immigrants, followed by Guatemala (750,000), El Salvador (710,000), Honduras (560,000), Philippines (350,000), Venezuela (320,000), Colombia (230,000) and Brazil (230,000).

The DHS said there has been a sharp decline in illegal immigrants from India between 2018 and 2022. It says 220,000 Indians were living in the US illegally at the end of 2022. “The Indian population fell by 54 per cent, or 260,000 people, from 480,000 in 2018 to 220,000 in 2022, while the Chinese population declined by 47 per cent, or 180,000, from 390,000 to 210,000,” DHS said.

California and Texas remained the leading states of residence of the unauthorised population in 2022, with 2.6 million and 2.1 million people, respectively, together accounting for 42 per cent of the total unauthorised population.

Other leading states were Florida (590,000), New Jersey (490,000), Illinois (420,000), and New York (410,000). The 10 leading states represented 72 per cent of the total unauthorised population in 2022.

From 2018 to 2022, the unauthorised population fell by nearly 100,000 in Florida and 200,000 in New York and increased by 110,000 in Texas, DHS said.