Colombia’s president calls for migrants to leave jobs in the US and return home

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia’s president is calling on his compatriots working without legal status in the United States to leave their jobs and return home as soon as possible.

“Wealth is only produced by the working people,” Gustavo Petro said in an early morning post on the X platform. “Let’s build social wealth in Colombia.”

The leftist president said his government would provide loans to those who take up his offer to return home and enlist in one of its programs to start a business.

Petro made his comments following a bitter feud over immigration last weekend with U.S. President Donald Trump that nearly triggered a trade war and rupture in diplomatic relations between the U.S. and its historic ally in South America.

Petro, in an earlier social media storm, accused the Trump administration of mistreating migrants who entered the U.S. illegally by handcuffing them and removing them on military flights to Latin America. Trump exploded when Petro denied two such flights permission to land.

Later, the two sides negotiated a truce amid protests by investors that Petro was sabotaging Colombia’s export economy, which relies heavily on purchases from the U.S.

Colombia accepted 475 deportation flights from the U.S. from 2020 to 2024, fifth behind Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador, according to Witness at the Border, an advocacy group that tracks flight data. It accepted 124 deportation flights in 2024.