Latin American church leaders decry 'pain,' 'drama' of deported compatriots

BUENOS AIRES (OSV News) -- As Colombians deported from the United States Jan. 28 arrived to their home country on flights operated by Colombia's military, shockwaves reverberate among Latin American bishops and bishops' conferences as the church decries "pain" and "drama" of compatriots.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro welcomed them back with posts on X, pointing to the conditions of their journey. The president had clashed with the Trump administration by denying permission for U.S. military aircraft carrying deportees to land two days earlier, only to back down after President Donald Trump threatened tariffs of up to 50% on Colombian imports.

"Our compatriots come from the U.S. free, dignified and without being handcuffed," Petro posted. "Migrants are not criminals. They're free human persons."

Migrants have long fled poverty, violence and a dearth of opportunities in Latin America. Their remittances float economies across the region and account for more than 20% of GDP in Central America.

The prospect of mass deportations and reduced remittances has provoked disquiet among leaders across Latin America and the Caribbean, especially as the Trump administration shows renewed interest in a region overlooked by his predecessors and increasingly embraced by China.

Catholic leaders and migrant advocates have expressed alarm over Trump's executive orders mandating mass deportations, too, along with the manner in which the deportations were carried out.

"Since the new American president took office, migration policies have been formulated that are adverse to migrants' situation. The experience of migrants from the moment they leave their homeland ... is marked by suffering and pain," the Guatemalan bishops' conference said in a Jan. 24 statement. "This situation worsens when they are captured and deported. The dream of a better future crumbles."

Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, added at a press conference the same day, "We denounce with sadness and pain the drama that our compatriots are experiencing in so many cities in the United States."

Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa of Panama City warned in a Jan. 25 interview with ADN CELAM, a media branch of the Catholic Church of Latin America and the Caribbean, that "these restrictive policies generate instability in transit countries such as Panama, turning our borders into human dams." The archbishop was referring to the Darién Gap, the treacherous jungle separating Central and South America, which migrants have increasingly crossed in recent years and which Panama's President José Raúl Mulino promises to close.

Panama, however, has come under unexpected U.S. pressure as Trump talks of retaking the Panama Canal. The U.S. ceded control over the waterway in 1999 after signing a treaty with Panama. But Trump has refused to rule out military force to take it back.

Archbishop Ulloa called the threats "worrying" and called for the treaty to be respected.

"It is worrying that expressions have been made public that attempt to attack our sovereignty, ignoring the generational struggle and sacrifice that has allowed us Panamanians to fly a single flag throughout the national territory," the archbishop told SIR, the Italian Catholic Church's news service.

Colombia's Petro's social media post showed a rare outburst from regional leaders on migration or Trump's threats, which brought swift retaliation with tariffs, the cancellation of visa appointments at the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá and a U.S. travel ban for Colombian officials.

That potential economic damage and complicated domestic politics -- with business leaders wanting to keep U.S. markets open -- offer "no incentive" for politicians to confront Trump, Will Freeman, senior fellow in Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told OSV News. "This is not the hill they want to die on."

The treatment of deportees in transit has made regional headlines, however. A deportation flight to Brazil landed in the Amazon due to technical issues. The shackled passengers opened emergency exits to escape the sweltering heat as air conditioning units had broken, The New York Times reported.

"These planes are arriving as if they were criminals," Jaime Solares, coordinator of the Red Jesuita con Migrantes in Guatemala, told OSV News of the situation in Central America. "We hadn't seen that before: migrants arriving like that, in chains."

Conditions for receiving returned migrants appear to be lacking across the region.

"The government receives them, but in practice there's no concrete plan," Solares said. "The government presents this as a 'happy return' ... but that's a joke."

Complicating matters more, he said, many returning migrants return to communities after years away and where "there may no longer have been any emotional ties with their families" or communities.

Economic conditions also appear bleak for returnees. "The country's most serious problem is the lack of employment," Bishop José Antonio Canales of Danlí, Honduras, told OSV News.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Jan. 27 that nearly 4,100 migrants had been returned to Mexico. Some non-Mexicans are expected to arrive with the reinstatement of the Remain in Mexico program, in which migrants wait in Mexico as their asylum claims are heard in U.S. courts.

Sheinbaum promised to receive returning migrants with "open arms." A program will provide them approximately $95 for bus fare home and enrollment in social services. "Mexicans there sustain the U.S. economy, in the fields, in services, everywhere," she said in a defense of migrants Jan. 25.

Mexican presidents have called migrants "heroes" for decades. But returning migrants' treatment often falls short of the accolades.

"They're heroes when they're there, sending remittances that contribute to the country's economy. But when they arrive (back in Mexico) they're nobodies," Scalabrinian Father Julio López, coordinator of the Mexican bishops' migrant ministry, told OSV News. "Nobody is concerned for deportees."

Another factor complicating the return of migrants to their countries of origin is a lack of resources. A source with a Catholic migrant assistance organization in Colombia said several nongovernmental groups in the region that receive migrants lost funding with the Trump administration's pause in development assistance through the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"There are no conditions to receive migrants," the source said, requesting anonymity to speak candidly. Migrants continue leaving Venezuela, Haiti and conflict zones in Colombia, the source said.

Elías Cornejo, migrant services coordinator for the Jesuit ministry Fe y Alegría in Panama, said migrants continue crossing the Darién Gap, albeit in smaller numbers.

"Most of them have told us that they want to get to Mexico or wherever they can," he told OSV News. "They are reevaluating their migration goals, although they may be thinking of staying and, if the opportunity arises, continue" onward to the United States.