Mexico refuses US military flight deporting migrants, sources say

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY — Mexico has refused a request from President Donald Trump's administration to allow a US military aircraft deporting migrants to land in the country, a US official and a Mexican official told Reuters.

US military aircraft carried out two similar flights, each with about 80 migrants, to Guatemala on Friday (Jan 24). The government was not able to move ahead with a plan to have a C-17 transport aircraft land in Mexico, however, after the country denied permission.

A US official and a Mexican official confirmed the decision, which was first reported by NBC News. The Mexican official did not provide a reason for the denial.

The US State Department, Pentagon and Mexico's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

US-Mexico relations have come into sharp focus since Trump started his second term on Monday with the declaration of a national emergency along the two nations' shared border. He has ordered 1,500 additional US troops there so far, and officials have said thousands more could deploy soon.

The president has declared Mexican drug cartels terrorist organisations, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America and threatened an across-the-board 25 per cent duty on Mexican goods beginning in February.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to avoid escalating the situation and even expressed openness toward accommodating Mexican nationals who are returned.

But the leftist leader has said she does not agree with mass deportations and that Mexican immigrants are vital to the US economy.

The use of US military aircraft to carry out deportation flights is part of the Pentagon's response to Trump's national emergency declaration on Monday.

In the past, US military aircraft have been used to relocate individuals from one country to another, like during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

This was the first time in recent memory that US military aircraft were used to fly migrants out of the US, one US official said.

The Pentagon has said that the US military would provide flights to deport more than 5,000 immigrants held by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.

Guatemala also on Friday received a third flight of about 80 deported migrants on a chartered commercial aircraft, Guatemalan authorities told Reuters.

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