Bogotá, Colombia – Colombian President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella and his allies in the United States government agree that Colombia will be safe under his leadership — and Colombians need not seek asylum in the United States.
The incoming president has reportedly agreed to cooperate with Washington to repatriate the thousands of Colombians who are actively seeking asylum in the United States.
Experts and immigrant advocates, however, say that the pledge to repatriate Colombian asylum-seekers is oversimplified.
U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno met with de la Espriella shortly after the latter narrowly won election in June, turning the country sharply to the political right and promising to combat rising armed conflict and violence with the country’s military might.
Exiting the meeting, Moreno — who was born in Colombia and raised in the United States — touted on social media that de la Espriella had promised “ANY Colombian citizen claiming asylum should return to Colombia and that he would ensure their safety and security.”
“To be clear: America welcomes immigrants who arrive legally, do not file fake asylum claims, are thoroughly vetted, learn our language, assimilate, and do not undermine our foreign policy,” Moreno wrote. “Coming to America is a privilege, not a right.”
De la Espriella’s promise was about currying favor with the Trump administration and the politicians like Moreno aligned with it, argued Thomas Kennedy, a policy analyst with the Florida Immigrant Coalition, an NGO umbrella organization.
“I just think it’s absurd and irresponsible,” Kennedy said. “There’s just no way a single president with a divided government — not a clear mandate in the legislative branch and not even close to mandate in terms of his winning [vote] numbers — can assert that authority.”
No one has the unilateral power to determine Colombians must return to Colombia, including U.S. President Donald Trump, who strongly endorsed de la Espriella.
“You can only make decisions on case-by-case analysis; you can only make your decisions based on the evidence in that case,” said Jeremiah Johnson, who is among the scores of U.S. Immigration Court judges fired under Trump.
With more than 235,000 Colombians petitioning for asylum since 2021, such a process would take years.
Alex Kristallis, an asylum attorney for the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant in California, said blanket statements that Colombia will be safe “might be a scare tactic.”
“There’s just a lot of information circling around, so I would caution people to just to slow down, to strengthen their case specifically, which is what they can do,” Kristallis said.
Asylum status is different from the broader Temporary Protected Status that has previously been granted to people from countries like Haiti and Venezuela.
Colombians — and people from any nation — have the right in the United States to petition for asylum within one year of arriving if they face persecution on five grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The U.S. granted asylum to 1,017 Colombians in fiscal year 2024, the most recent for which government data is available.
Though Colombians’ right to seek asylum cannot be annulled overnight, it could become harder to win an asylum case if de la Espriella, as he’s promised, reduces the influence of armed groups and conflict in Colombia. If that happens, an immigration judge or asylum officer may be more receptive to the argument that a Colombian asylum-seeker can safely return to their home country.
Still, Johnson said, “it has to be individualized to the person.”
“Just because a president says that things are safe on the ground — what does it mean for that one village where a person was harmed?” Johnson asked. “You can’t as a judge make a decision based on the public record or statements by politicians.”
United States Immigration Courts, however, are not immune from political influence, particularly under President Donald Trump. Unlike criminal courts and civil courts, immigration court falls under The Department of Justice, part of the executive branch.
The Trump administration has vigorously sought to control Immigration Courts, including by carrying out a purge of judges with high rates of granting asylum and expanding the use of expedited removal proceedings that fast-track deportations.
Many asylum seekers in the U.S. wait years for a decision in their case. Washington’s posture toward Colombia could also affect those who were recently granted asylum, who must wait at least a year before applying for a green card to obtain permanent residency. During that period, their asylum status could be revoked if the conditions in their home country are deemed to have changed.
Most of the Colombian clients that Kristallis works with are LGBT asylum seekers. Though gay marriage has been legal in Colombia since 2016, that doesn’t guarantee protection against discrimination.
As several governments in Latin America have shifted to the political right, and thus come into closer alliance with President Donald Trump and the United States, the practical effect for asylum seekers is that immigration officials might ask tougher questions, Kristallis said.
For example, El Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele, a close ally of Trump, has reportedly overseen a significant reduction in violent crime in that country. El Salvadoran clients will face questions that others won’t, such as why it remains unsafe to return to the country, based on an assumption “it will be safer because of their promises it will be safer,” according to Kristallis.
“That’s what I would caution for,” Kristallis said. “No matter what their claim is, they might have to be prepared to answer more questions related to, you know, ‘Abelardo has said that all Colombian asylum seekers are going to be completely welcome in your country again.’”
In the days after de la Espriella won the presidency, a few of Kristallis’ clients called to ask what it means for their case. His answer was that, for now, he doesn’t know.
Kennedy pointed to the complexity of Colombia’s history of conflict and internal strife, and said that people have put their faith in the U.S. asylum system to “at least have a fair shot at a claim to safety.”
“I think it’s a disservice to the Colombians he represents not just in the country, but abroad,” Kennedy said of de la Espriella’s pledge.
Featured image description: Split image of U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Abelardo de la Espriella (right).
Featured image credit: @POTUS and @ABDELAESPRIELLA via X.
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