First posted on Instagram
White House border czar Tom Homan has warned migrant caravans moving toward the United States that the midterm results will not change the Trump administration's border enforcement, telling them they will not be released into the country. Homan delivered the warning on Fox News' America Reports on Wednesday, November 11, eight days after Democrats won control of the House and Senate in the November 3 midterm elections.
"Congress may be more blue. Texas may be more blue. But the White House is red, bright red," Homan said. "These caravans can come to the border all they want. They're not going to be released into the United States."
Homan said those who reach the border will be turned around or prosecuted first. "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," he said. "But we're not giving one inch on this border. We're going to keep that border secure."
He also called on Mexico to step up as it did during President Donald Trump's first term, putting troops on its southern and northern borders to stop the caravans before they reach the United States. "Mexico needs to step up like they did in Trump 45. They need to put troops on their southern border, northern border," Homan said. "The Democrats can't change that."
The warning was aimed at a caravan of mostly Honduran migrants that left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on November 3 — Election Day — the third Honduran-led caravan to set out since September, according to reports from the region. Some of those travelling said they hoped the Democratic victories would loosen the administration's border restrictions when the new Congress takes office in January. Reports from the ground since have put the number moving through southern Mexico in the thousands — one report put it at about 3,000, mostly Hondurans, with Haitians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans joining along the way — after the group reached Tapachula this week.
Homan's message follows the same line the administration has held since September, when he warned an earlier caravan — the "Fe y Esperanza" group that left Honduras on September 20 — that those who reach the border would be "immediately turned around, or they'll be arrested and prosecuted and deported," and that there had been "zero releases" under the administration. The Department of Homeland Security has said Border Patrol is tracking the caravans' movements with international partners.
Homan also blamed the Biden administration for the renewed caravan activity, calling it "the Biden effect," and said on Fox News that "the same laws we've been enforcing in the last two years, we're going to enforce for the next two years."