White House border czar Tom Homan says a migrant caravan now moving through southern Mexico will not alter how the Trump administration handles illegal crossings, dismissing the surge as the “Biden effect” tied to Democrats’ recent midterm wins.
Speaking on Fox News’s America Reports, Homan argued that political shifts in Washington and in Texas won’t change enforcement at the border because the White House remains under Republican control.
Congress may be more blue. Texas may be more blue, but the White House is red, bright red. And again, President Trump created the most secure border in history. These caravans come to the border all they want. They’re not going to be released in the United States. They’re going to be turned around or prosecuted, then turned around because we will charge them with a crime so they can sit in jail, serve their sentence before they’re deported.
Homan also called on Mexico to station troops along both its northern and southern borders, as it did during Trump’s first term. In 2019, Mexico deployed 6,000 National Guard personnel to its southern border region under a deal that averted tariffs Trump had threatened on Mexican goods.
The caravan in question left Tapachula, a city near Mexico’s border with Guatemala, on Tuesday and was moving north through the state of Chiapas by Wednesday. A state government source put the group’s size at roughly 1,500 people, including families traveling with young children. Some migrants told Reuters they were hopeful that Democrats’ midterm gains would open new legal pathways to live and work in the United States.
Mexican authorities were already responding in Chiapas. Footage cited by AFP showed National Guard troops, immigration officers, and state police blocking a roadway after migrants crossed the Suchiate River from Guatemala.
The push comes against a backdrop of sharply reduced border crossings nationally. The Department of Homeland Security said in October that preliminary data for fiscal year 2026 showed southwest border apprehensions down 95 percent compared with the Biden administration, and that it was the first full fiscal year in which Border Patrol recorded zero releases of migrants into the country.
Before the midterm elections, Vice President JD Vance warned that illegal crossings could climb if Democrats won seats, pointing to footage of migrants traveling through Mexico in October, some of whom said they hoped a Democratic Congress would push to unwind Trump’s immigration policies.
When Democrats get elected, the border gets flooded. No one understands that better than the murderers, rapists, and drug runners south of our border. Vote Republican next Tuesday.
