Deportation crisis: Mexico errs on the side of caution, Brazil summons US embassy chief

All the elements that Mexico had anticipated for the worst-case scenario at the start of Donald Trump’s administration were there. The first deportations, the announcement of a tariff war, the mockery and provocations on social media. This time, however, it was Colombia and not the Mexican government that ended up being the protagonist of the first diplomatic conflict between the United States and Latin America over the migration crisis in the Trump era.

President Gustavo Petro stood up to Washington’s pressure and entered the fray, but was soon forced to back down and accept his rival’s terms to avoid a bigger confrontation. The diplomatic tension lasted less than 24 hours, although they were a show of force and a warning of what could be to come in the second presidency of the Republican politician. The government of Brazil, another Latin American giant, also expressed its anger without nuance. However, faithful to its tradition, it prioritized diplomacy to express its disagreement with the Trump administration over deportations in conditions it considers undignified. The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the highest-ranking diplomat of the United States embassy in Brasília on Monday to ask him not to repeat an incident like the one experienced by 88 undocumented Brazilian immigrants repatriated over the weekend.

Along the same lines, the clash between Petro and Trump reaffirmed the strategy of the Mexican authorities — not only based on what happened last weekend, but also due to the experiences acquired during the mandate of Andrés Manuel López Obrador — convinced now more than ever that they have to avoid a clash with Trump at all costs and bet on a negotiated solution to the challenge posed by the American president.

“The important thing, I said from day one, is to always act with a cool head, defending the sovereignty of each country and respect between nations and peoples,” Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday. The Mexican president chose to stay out of the brief diplomatic conflict so as not to find herself between a rock and a hard place. On one end was Petro, one of her main allies in the region, but on the other was the United States, by far her most important and complex relationship. “With Latin America, we always have our solidarity, our support,” she said in her morning press conference, but she also had words for her main trading partner. “The relationship with the United States is special,” she said. “We are obliged to have a good relationship.”

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opted for a similar strategy. The return of 88 Brazilians on a flight chartered by the U.S. authorities, where they were forced to “travel handcuffed” on an aging U.S. aircraft “with broken air conditioning,” greatly irritated the president, who immediately mobilized several ministers. The meeting between the Brazilian representative and the U.S. chargé d’affaires was positive and focused on avoiding a repeat of the incidents in the interests of both countries, according to a spokesperson for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry.

The meeting took place the day after Lula’s government demanded in a note to the Trump administration that it provide “dignified, respectful and humane treatment” for undocumented Brazilian immigrants it deports. The controversial situation of the repatriated migrants came to light on Friday during a stopover in Manaus, in the Amazon. Lula ordered that the deportees handcuffs be removed and sent a Brazilian Air Force plane to pick them up and take them to their final destination, Belo Horizonte. “We had a very sober reaction. We do not want to provoke the American government,” declared Brazilian Minister of Justice Ricardo Lewandowski on Monday morning, in a meeting with business leaders.

Trump poses a complex challenge on the diplomatic front. Mexico has witnessed how he punishes those who bow their heads, but also how he is implacable against those who take the bait of his provocations. After a learning curve of several months — not without misunderstandings and stumbles — Sheinbaum has shown that she can maintain that balance in her speeches and send the signal to Mexicans that she can maintain dialogue with the White House without sacrificing her dignity. Petro was less cautious and paid the consequences.

The U.S. president, always prone to putting his opponents on the ropes, took advantage of an exceptional opportunity to test the weight of his threats at a relatively low cost and send the message to the rest of the world that he is serious. It is a negotiating pattern that he has made clear since his first term. Trump starts from a maximalist position in each negotiation, with exaggerated demands, to force his counterpart to give in and end up doing what he expects of them. “Unlike eight years ago, when Trump was still an enigma, his return was much more anticipated,” said Miguel Basáñez, Mexican ambassador between 2015 and 2016, in an interview with this newspaper. “The first thing we have seen is more of the same.”

It is a movie that Mexico, Trump’s favorite target, has seen time and again. At the end of May 2019, Trump announced a 5% tariff as punishment for irregular immigration, with the intention of gradually increasing it to 25%. The López Obrador government, which until then had promoted an open-door immigration policy, acknowledged that its first impulse, “the natural thing,” was to adopt a strategy of “an eye for an eye” and impose mirror measures. “Remember that I do not lack courage, that I am not a coward,” said the then-Mexican president, who described the situation as a “sad affair.”

But there was a lot at stake. López Obrador sent his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, to negotiate a way out with Trump. Mexico explored other alternatives, calling a summit of allies willing to join forces with its cause, but in the end agreed to make a radical change in the management of immigration and deployed the National Guard to turn the southern border into the Republican’s new wall and detain thousands of immigrants. But by the first week of June, there was an agreement and the tariffs did not materialize.

The solution was not without criticism, not only of a moral nature, but also because of the strategy in the response. “The mistake that the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador made was to respond to a tweet where we were threatened that if we did not stop Central American migration, they would increase tariffs,” Ildefonso Guajardo, former Secretary of Economy, told this newspaper. “We are feeding a tendency to make mutual threats.”

The counterargument is that there was probably not much more room for action on the part of the Mexican authorities and that, at that point, there was really no precedent for a similar attack by Trump. Ultimately, the Mexican authorities were unwilling or unable to seek another way out. Although the pressures continued, tensions did not reach another similar peak until Trump left office in January 2021.

“An agreement was reached between both governments and that is good,” said Sheinbaum after the clash between Trump and Petro. “It is what we have sought in the relationship with the United States: dialogue, respect; always with our principles of defending our sovereignty, of defending Mexicans abroad, of guaranteeing the human rights of those who are repatriated to our country,” added the president, regarding her own challenge with the new United States government.

“It was torture from the moment we left Louisiana”

Sandra de Souza, a Brazilian deported with her husband and two children, spoke to the press as soon as she landed in Belo Horizonte regarding the enormous tension experienced during the flight: “It was hell, it was torture from the moment we left Louisiana. It was clear that the plane had some problem. A lack of commitment to human beings. We were scared to death of dying,” she said in statements collected by the G-1 news website.

The Brazilian government had already warned that it would ask Washington for explanations about what happened on the flight in question. A spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry says that so far this year, Brazil has received two deportation flights. The annual average was about 15 flights between 2022 and 2024. With these premises, the ministry summoned the chargé d’affaires, Gabriel Escobar, given that the ambassador’s post is vacant due to the change of administration in Washington. Now the government wants to focus on the deportees restarting their lives in Brazil.

The complaints of Lula and his government had a wide repercussion over the weekend in Brazil, but were received, at least publicly, with indifference by the newly inaugurated Trump administration. Both the Brazilian president and his Mexican counterpart will have to reiterate their position on Thursday at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), urgently convened by Honduran President Xiomara Castro to discuss deportations.

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