Mexico reportedly refused to accept a U.S. deportation flight on Thursday, denying military plane access to land.

According to NBC News, the plane was blocked from beginning its flight to Mexico.

“Mexico denied a U.S. military plane access to land Thursday, at least temporarily frustrating the Trump administration’s plans to deport immigrants to the country, according to two U.S defense officials,” NBC Politics wrote.

NBC News reports:

Two Guatemala-bound Air Force C-17s, carrying about 80 people apiece, flew deportees out of the U.S. Thursday night, the sources said. The third flight, slotted for Mexico, never took off.

A White House spokesperson did not reply to a text message seeking comment on Mexico’s stance.

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It was not immediately clear why Mexico blocked the flight, but tensions between the U.S. and Mexico, neighbors and longtime allies, have risen since President Donald Trump won the November election. Trump has threatened to slap 25% across-the-board tariffs on Mexico in retaliation for migrants crossing the border the countries share. But he has not yet put them in effect.

The news follows President Trump authorizing the Pentagon to deploy active-duty U.S. troops to help secure the Southern Border.

Approximately 1,500 troops will be deployed in the coming days.

Trump also signed an executive order suspending the “physical entry of aliens engaged in an invasion of the United States through the southern border.”

Per Forbes:

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said early Friday morning deportation flights had begun, marking the first deportation flights using military aircraft since President Dwight Eisenhower was in office, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed U.S. official.

The Mexican Embassy and the White House did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.

538. That is how many arrests U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made Thursday.

The Trump administration said this week deportations will ramp up, with cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., and Miami reportedly in its crosshairs. However, ICE and Border Patrol agents have been instructed to immediately focus on people who cross the border without authorization. Trump bolstered his anti-immigration operation with executive orders that will send 1,500 military troops to the border and prohibit advance appointments made by migrants, forcing them to wait in Mexico in the meantime. Trump also signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship in the U.S., though the policy, which automatically gives citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., is in limbo after a federal judge in Washington granted a request from Democratic state attorneys general to block Trump’s order.

 

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