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President Trump hits Colombia with tariffs for refusing deportation flights
Biggest sanctuary cities brace for Trump deportations
Los Angeles and New York have taken different approaches to sanctuary city status as Trump’s second term approaches.
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump on Sunday announced stiff new tariffs on imports from Colombia and visa restrictions in retaliation to Colombian President Gustavo Petro denying the entry of U.S. military flights deporting Colombian migrants.
Shortly after Trump’s threat, Petro said he would provide a presidential plane for the “dignified return” of Columbia migrants who face deportations from the U.S.
After learning of two repatriation flights that weren’t allowed to land in Colombia, Trump said he would issue 25% tariffs on all goods coming into the U.S. from Colombia and raise it to 50% tariffs after one week. He further announced the immediate revocation of visas and a travel ban to the U.S. for Colombian government officials and their allies and supporters.
Trump promised financial sanctions on Colombia and said he would heighten customs and border protection inspections of all Colombian nationals and cargo on national security grounds. “These measures are just the beginning,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”
Trump’s moves come as he is seeking to aggressively act on his promise of mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally. During his first week in office, Trump declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and ordered U.S. troops to help carry out deportations, which has resulted in deportees flying back to their home countries in handcuffs.
“The US cannot treat Colombian migrants as criminals,” Petro wrote in a Sunday morning post on X that triggered Trump’s actions. “I deny the entry of American planes carrying Colombian migrants into our territory. The United States must establish a protocol for the dignified treatment of migrants before we receive them.”
The largest U.S. imports from Colombia include crude oil, coffee, and cut flowers, according to the State Department. Trump has discussed plans to issue tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China, igniting concerns of trade wars as he begins his second term.
Multiple Latin American countries have pushed back at Trump’s militarized deportations.
Brazil has also condemned the conditions in which deportees have been returned. And last week, Mexico refused to accept a deportation flight for the first time in decades.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement Sunday defending the deportation policy and demanding cooperation from Latin American nations.
“President Trump has made it clear that under his administration, America will no longer be lied to nor taken advantage of. It is the responsibility of each nation to take back their citizens who are illegally present in the United States in a serious and expeditious manner,” Rubio said.
“Colombian President Petro had authorized flights and provided all needed authorizations and then canceled his authorization when the planes were in the air,” Rubio added. “As demonstrated by today’s actions, we are unwavering in our commitment to end illegal immigration and bolster America’s border security.”
Reach Joey Garrison X @joeygarrison.
Washington — Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. of New Jersey will return to Congress on June 30, his spokesperson said, after being away since March in an unexplained absence that has confounded Capitol Hill.
“Congressman Kean is eager to return to in person work on June 30 and resume a full schedule,” Kean’s spokesperson, Harrison Neely, told CBS News on Thursday. The New Jersey Globe first reported on his return date.
Kean’s whereabouts since he last voted on March 5 have not been disclosed. When he first made a statement about the absence in late April, the New Jersey Republican said he was addressing a “personal medical issue.”
Kean said earlier this month that he would return to Washington within a matter of weeks, at which point he would provide more details about his health.
“Right now I am focused on my recovery and under the advice of healthcare professionals, I will transition from virtual work to in person work within a matter of weeks. At that time I will be completely transparent as to the nature of my medical condition,” Kean said in a June 2 statement released by his campaign.
The statement came hours before polls closed in New Jersey’s GOP primary for his seat, in which he ran unopposed.
He has missed more than 130 votes during his absence.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters earlier this month that he had recently spoken with Kean. Johnson said he was aware of the health issue, but would not disclose the details.
“What he’s dealing with is not very common and not a big thing,” Johnson said.
new video loaded: Obama Presidential Center Opens in Chicago
By Shawn Paik
June 18, 2026
The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia offers guided tactile tours aimed at blind and low vision visitors in a gallery called Signers’ Hall. Museum educator Sydney Wharton traces visitor Tim Kelly’s Jr. hands over the statue of Benjamin Franklin as she leads him and his father, Tim Kelly Sr., through the gallery.
Rachel Wisniewski for NPR
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Press the “Listen” button below to hear the story text, read by reporter Jonaki Mehta.
PHILADELPHIA — About a dozen visitors pause at the entrance to a gallery filled with statues of 42 men who had gathered here more than two centuries ago for the signing of the U.S. Constitution. The statues appear to be in motion, in conversation or deep in thought.
Standing among and touching their life-size figures, hands and faces drops visitors into that consequential historic moment.
“They feel like real people,” Grace Engle, a museum educator at the National Constitution Center (NCC), says to the tour group. “Except they might let you touch them a little more than your average individual might on a first meeting.”
As America recognizes 250 years of existence, this museum in the nation’s founding city has begun offering guided tactile tours aimed at blind and low vision visitors in a gallery called “Signers’ Hall.”
Left: Simon Bonenfant works with the organization Philly Touch Tours and helped train the museum educators leading the tours.
Right: Bonefant engages with George Washington’s face and head.
Rachel Wisniewski for NPR
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Rachel Wisniewski for NPR
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 required most public institutions like museums to make buildings themselves accessible, but access to exhibits inside is often still limited. The NCC joins a growing number of museums nationwide that have, in recent years, incorporated accessibility options like sensory-friendly days into their programming, though “touch tours” are less common.
Visitor Tim Kelly Jr. runs his fingers over Benjamin Franklin’s figure. “Everything feels so distinct on him,” he says. “He’s seated. I could also feel the wrinkles on his face because he was 81 years old at the time of the convention.”
Kelly says it’s refreshing to experience a tour tailored to the way he learns: The museum’s guides provide detailed descriptions of what can be seen and felt, while weaving in a history lesson. Pointing to Eldbridge Gerry in one corner of the room, Grace Engle says, “He is who you have to blame or thank for the beauty of gerrymandering,” explaining that Gerry had once redrawn a district in the shape of a salamander. “And so then a cartoonist deems it gerrymandering.”
The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia is participating in the nation’s 250th anniversary, in part, by expanding access to their exhibits to visitors with disabilities.
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Rachel Wisniewski for NPR
At other moments, museum staff trace visitors’ hands over the expressive faces, clothing and hands of the statues, all while guiding them safely through the crowded space.
Kristina Marinello, senior director of museum experience, says this gallery has long invited touching. “Ben Franklin’s hands are super shiny because people have kind of always touched him no matter what. Kids like to sit on his lap.” But the center only began offering these tours officially in April, after staff trained with Philly Touch Tours, an organization that works with museums far and wide to make them more accessible.
Left: Replicas of artifacts are available as part of the tactile friendly tours the NCC now offers.
Right: Jeff and Sharon Clark touch the replica of an antique fabric. They have been to the NCC before it offered tactile tours and say the experience now is much improved.
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Trish Maunder, one of the group’s founders, says “Our mantra is ‘seeing may be believing, but when you touch, you know.’” Maunder, whose daughter is blind, calls touch the “mother sense,” one she thinks people lose connection with as they get older. She hopes tours like this become more prevalent and will help sighted and blind people alike reconnect with that sense. “Your body holds on to that sort of muscle memory, so now you carry that with you.”
Over the last two decades, museums around the country have incorporated accessibility into their programming, says Heather Pressman, who teaches courses on museums and accessibility at Johns Hopkins University. She says meeting ADA accessibility requirements “is the bare minimum.” Ensuring the artifacts in a museum are accessible takes more work, but it doesn’t have to cost much, she says. “Something super simple for people who have low vision is just creating large print labels.” Pressman says exhibits with calming sensory experiences for neurodivergent visitors are another cheap option that’s becoming more widespread. For museums with valuable, ancient artifacts, creating replicas that can be held is also a step toward accessibility.
Left: In addition to touch tours, the museum regularly holds “sensory-friendly” days for neurodivergent visitors with dimly lit rooms and sensory toys. They’re also often intended to be kid-friendly experiences.
Right: The theater in the Constitution Center is often reserved as a quiet room on sensory-friendly days.
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Rachel Wisniewski for NPR
While accessibility programming is never complete, Pressman says it tends to open their doors to more people than museum staff may realize. “How many of us are now wearing glasses in our 40s? People can also temporarily have a disability, like you break your leg,” for example, she says. In fact, nearly a third of the U.S. population has disabilities.
Kristina Marinello says she has been working on expanding accessibility at the NCC in many ways, including through sensory-friendly days that include features like dimly lit, silent rooms. “Those first three words of the Constitution — ‘we the people’ — we want to stand by that and make sure everybody feels that,” she says.
Left: Akosua “Kosi” Asabere has been on a touch tour at the NCC once before. She says, for once, she doesn’t feel like an afterthought in a museum-going experience.
Right: Asabere feels the cuff of George Washington’s sleeve.
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As the Constitution Center’s most recent tactile tour comes to a close, second-time visitor Akosua “Kosi” Asabere shares some reflections. “Standing in Signers’ Hall and running my fingers over those bronze statues, I felt this profound sense of reverence, but I also felt deeply conflicted,” she says. Asabere is a software engineer who works on digital accessibility and says she can’t help but think about the nation’s founding document through that lens.
“It was a brilliant document, but it had massive systemic bugs. Women were left out. Black people were left out. Disabled people were left out.”
At the same time, she’s encouraged by places like the National Constitution Center, which she says are taking steps to ensure historically marginalized people, including those with disabilities, are no longer an afterthought.
Edited by: Nirvi Shah
Visual design and development by: LA Johnson
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