Mexico denied a U.S. military plane access to land on Thursday, temporarily frustrating the Trump administration’s plans to deport immigrants to the country, according to two U.S. defense officials and a third person familiar with the situation.
Two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s, each carrying about 80 people, flew deportees out of the U.S. on Thursday night, the sources said. However, the third flight, intended for Mexico, never took off.
It was not immediately clear why Mexico blocked the flight, but tensions between the U.S. and Mexico have risen since President Donald Trump won the November election. Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on Mexico in retaliation for migrants crossing the shared border, but he has not yet implemented them.
A White House official said in a text message that “the flights thing was an administrative issue and was quickly rectified.” After the publication of this article, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tweeted, “Yesterday, Mexico accepted a record 4 deportation flights in 1 day!” However, it was not clarified whether these were military, commercial, or private flights.
A Department of Homeland Security official later told NBC News that the four deportation flights accepted by Mexico on Thursday were run by Ice Air Operations and were government-chartered flights, not military aircraft.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government opposes Trump’s “unilateral” actions to implement restrictive immigration standards, including the reinstatement of a “remain in Mexico” policy that forces migrants to stay in Mexico while awaiting asylum claims adjudication. Flying deportees into a foreign country requires the cooperation of that nation’s government.
In a statement, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not detail why the U.S. plane was not allowed to land. “Mexico has a very good relationship with the United States government and we cooperate with respect for our sovereignty on a wide range of issues, including migration,” the statement read. “When it comes to repatriations, we will always welcome the arrival of Mexicans to our territory with open arms. Mexico embraces you.”
On Friday, Guatemala received three flights from the U.S. with Guatemalan nationals who had been sent back to their home country. A spokesperson for the Guatemalan Migration Institute told NBC News that two of Friday’s flights were on military aircraft and the other was on a non-military plane. The total number of Guatemalans who arrived in Guatemala City from the three flights was about 265.
The military deportation flights are part of a broader Trump administration crackdown on illegal immigration, set in motion with executive orders signed in his first week in office. During his campaign, Trump vowed to stop illegal immigration into the U.S. and pursue mass deportation of undocumented immigrants already living in the country. In addition to the flights, he has enlisted the military to beef up its presence on the border with an additional 1,500 troops.
Source: NBC News
