https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14323583/Mexico-deportation-flight-bloc...Mexico risks Trump's wrath as it BLOCKS
packed illegal migrant deportation flight from landing
By WILL POTTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
25 January 2025
Mexican authorities blocked a US military plane from deporting illegal migrants on Thursday after President Trump's immigration crackdown began.
US officials told NBC News that a jet filled with illegal immigrants bound for Mexico never took off after authorities south of the border rejected the move. The flight was one of three that were set to take off on Thursday, alongside two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s carrying over 150 people, as part of what Trump has described as the largest mass deportation effort in US history.
Deporting migrants to foreign countries requires permission from the incoming nation's government, which Mexico declined on Thursday.
It is not clear why Mexican authorities moved to block the flight, which came hours after an American hiker was also shot by suspected Mexican cartel members in California a few hundred yards north of the border.
Trump's return to the White House quickly inflamed relations between the two nations, with the new president threatening to impose a 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports in retaliation for mass migration across southern border.
As he toured natural disaster sites in North Carolina and California on Friday, Trump issued a stern warning to illegal migrants with criminal records, saying 'we're taking them out first.'
While Mexican authorities have shown their disapproval for the deportations, Trump's administration has praised their own efforts this week, with new Secretary of State Marco Rubio also posting a video of migrants being marched onto the military aircrafts to Guatemala on Thursday.
Two other flights set for Guatemala (pictured) arrived late in the day