Colombia has denied entry to two U.S. military deportation flights, according to officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department. The flights, carried out on U.S. military C-17 aircraft, were carrying about 80 Colombian migrants each and had departed from California, the defense official told NBC News.

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

U.S. military and police forces began the first deportation flights for illegal immigrants under President Donald Trump's hardline immigration crackdown nationwide and particularly at the southern border.