Nelson Ardila, kitchen assistant deported by Trump: ‘I had never felt so vulnerable as when they put me in handcuffs’
The Colombian tried to immigrate to the United States to provide greater financial support to his mother and older brother
Nelson Ardila was praying with other migrants in his room at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas when he learned that his dream of migrating to the United States had come to an end. A security guard interrupted the evening prayers on January 28 to announce that he and the pastor, who was also detained, were leaving at 8 p.m.
Planes and cruise ships to bring more deportees
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said that his government will continue sending military aircraft to the United States to bring back deported migrants. “We are bringing our Colombian men and women home and that is why they will arrive in dignified conditions,” he said in an interview broadcast on Friday, January 31, on Univision. He explained that the U.S. flight on Wednesday, during which migrants arrived in handcuffs, was a mistake that will not be repeated. “Someone authorized it without the president's knowledge. There are internal responsibilities, but the president's decision is that Colombians in handcuffs will not be accepted," he said.
The president also stated that alternatives would be explored in case the volume of deportations rises in the coming months. “If it increases, which is likely, we will send cruise ships, which can carry 1,000, 2,000, 4,000, or even 6,000 people,” he said. However, he acknowledged that a protocol has yet to be signed to formalize how long-term deportations will be handled.
According to Petro, the last achievement under the Biden administration (2021–2025) was that children and their mothers would no longer be deported in handcuffs. The goal now is to extend this policy to all deportees without a criminal record. “The migrant is not a criminal,” the president emphasized in his television interview.
