Inside the ordeal of deported migrants as US and Colombia squared off

Daniel Oquendo, 33, remembers well the first words US border agents told him after he crossed the US-Mexico border on January 20.

“Do you know who the next president is? The fun is over for you here, the music has changed … you’ve got to go back.” Daniel Oquendo, 33, remembers well the first words US border agents told him after he crossed the US-Mexico border on January 20. Eight days later, Oquendo is back in his native Colombia, after a bitter diplomatic row between US President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro. He was one of about 200 Colombian migrants who were supposed to be deported early on Sunday – but were turned around by Colombian authorities. “It was very confusing: Nobody told us anything. US Customs and Border (Protection) took us from our cells in San Diego and put us on a C-130, with seats and all of that. They told us the flight to Bogota was going to be seven hours, but when we landed, it was 10 hours, and as soon as the back door for the plane opened, we could see an ambulance saying ‘Houston,’” Oquendo said. “We were back in the United States, and still, nobody would tell us nothing.” It turned out that Petro had blocked the landing of the two US military flights carrying deportees, sparking a back-and-forth with his US counterpart involving threats of tariff wars before Bogota finally relented.