Brazil will create a reception center for deported illegal immigrants from the United States, following complaints that conditions were poor on a recent deportation flight, the nation’s government announced on Jan. 28.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva green-lit the establishment of the reception post at Confins, a municipality in Minas Gerais state, Macaé Evaristo, Brazilian minister of human rights and citizenship, told journalists in the capital, Brasilia.
Evaristo said the objective was to “ensure that these passengers have good conditions for water, food and even temperature, which I think was the most damaging aspect” in the first flight.
The decision to institute the reception center was taken because of a belief that more planes from the United States are on their way after the weekend arrival of the first deportation flight under the Trump administration to South America’s largest nation, carrying 88 deportees.
Local media in Brazil reported that government officials were concerned that Brazilians had been kept handcuffed after an unscheduled stop in the Amazon’s biggest city, Manaus, prompted by technical problems with the aircraft.
A Brazilian military plane eventually brought them to their destination, the city of Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, on Jan. 25.
On Jan. 26, Brazil’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was seeking answers from Washington about the “degrading treatment” of Brazilian citizens aboard the recent flight.
The ministry specifically mentioned “the use of handcuffs and chains, the poor condition of the aircraft, with a broken air conditioning system, among other problems.”
The U.S. Embassy in Brasilia and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have not yet commented on the topic, and it remains unclear whether the 88 Brazilian deportees were taken into custody under the Trump administration or the Biden administration.
There have been almost four dozen deportation flights from the United States to Brazil over the past three years, and the country’s government has no wish to interrupt them.
However, authorities are looking into how many deportees were handcuffed, and there have been passenger reports that the plane’s air conditioning suffered problems, causing intense heat in the cabin.
Passengers also ended up leaving via the emergency exit after their unscheduled landing in Manaus.
“We don’t want to provoke the American government, but it’s essential that deported Brazilians are treated with dignity,” Brazilian Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski said on Jan. 27.
However, Brazil will not use its air force planes to assist with the deportation of Brazilians from the United States, Brazil’s foreign affairs minister, Mauro Vieira, said on Jan. 28, just days after a flare-up between Colombia and the United States over the issue of deportation flights.
After Colombian President Gustavo Petro had threatened to refuse to allow U.S. military planes carrying deportees into the country, U.S. President Donald Trump responded by threatening to immediately initiate 25 percent tariffs on Colombian goods that would increase to 50 percent after a week.
Petro initially responded by saying his country would impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, but hours later, diplomats from his government and Washington reached a deal on the flights.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement late on Jan. 26 that the Colombian government “has agreed to all of President Trump’s terms, including the unrestricted acceptance of all illegal aliens from Colombia returned from the United States, including on U.S. military aircraft, without limitation or delay.”
She noted that the tariff orders would be “held in reserve and not signed,” while the United States would keep up visa restrictions on Colombian officials until the first plane of deportees is returned to Colombia, according to the statement.
