Hundreds of migrants are marching north through Mexico toward the U.S. border, and according to the organizers, this is only the warm-up: an even bigger caravan is being planned for November 9 — six days after the midterm elections.
Hundreds of migrants are on the move north through Mexico toward the U.S. border, the post reports, and organizers are planning an even bigger caravan for November 9. The timing is impossible to miss. The November 9 date lands six days after Americans vote in the November 3 midterms, elections that will decide control of Congress — and with it, the future of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Coverage of the current march shows a group that set out from the Tapachula area of southern Mexico, the staging city near the Guatemalan border where migrants gather and wait. Mexican press counts varied as the group formed: the newspaper Milenio put about 400 migrants ready to proceed, while Diario del Sur, as referenced by Breitbart, estimated about 700 participants after the group left Tapachula. The caravan is made up mostly of migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, joined by Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans, according to reporting based on the Mexican press. Independent journalist Julio Rosas, who covers migration and the border, spoke with members of the caravan and reported that they expressed hope a Democratic win in the midterms could lead to a more favorable political climate for migrants.
"They'll be immediately turned around, or they'll be arrested and prosecuted and deported." — Tom Homan, White House border czar
The administration's answer has not changed. Border czar Tom Homan has said the migrants will be sent back to their home countries or a third country, and he has put the policy in one line: "Zero releases from the border under the Trump administration. President Trump promised that. He's going to keep that promise." The administration's border posture — a declared border emergency, mass deportations and sustained pressure on Mexico to intercept caravans long before they reach the United States — is exactly what any November caravan would run into. When an earlier caravan moved through Mexico in September, the Department of Homeland Security answered the reports publicly with three words: "The border is closed."
Mexico's role may decide how far this one gets. Caravans have repeatedly formed in Tapachula and headed north ahead of major U.S. political moments, and Mexican authorities have repeatedly dispersed them along the way. The "Faith and Hope with God" caravan that crossed Chiapas for several weeks was disbanded on October 12 near the Chiapas-Oaxaca border after authorities offered participants documents to continue their journeys by other means, La Jornada reported. Other migrants in the current group have told Mexican reporters they may settle for work in Mexico if the road north closes.
What happens next depends on two clocks. The marchers still have the length of Mexico ahead of them, and Mexican authorities have stopped caravans like this before. And behind this group, if the organizers deliver what the post says they are planning, a bigger one is set to move on November 9 — right after the votes that decide who controls Congress are counted.