“We Believe the Democrats Will Help Us”: Caravan Marches North. Trump: “They Will Not Be Accepted.”

Written By TNT Staff, Posted on November 13, 2026

Words have consequences, and nowhere is that clearer than on the coastal highway out of Tapachula, Mexico.

A week after Democrats won control of Congress, a caravan that calls itself “Dios con Nosotros,” or “God With Us,” set out north on Tuesday, Nov. 10, from the city near Mexico’s border with Guatemala. La Jornada reported that a Chiapas state government source put the group at about 1,500 people, the largest of 2026. The regional outlet Quadratín Chiapas counted “more than a thousand,” most from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, joined in Tapachula by Haitians and Cubans.

The migrants are not shy about why they are moving now. “There might be a light at the end of the tunnel, a way for us to get in… We believe the Democrats will help us,” said a Nicaraguan who had already been deported once from the United States, as quoted in a White House release on Thursday. Another said: “We hear that […] now that Congress has changed, the border has to be open.”

Where would they get that idea?

From Democrats themselves. In the days after the Nov. 3 midterms, prominent members of the incoming majority said out loud what they plan to do with their power. The White House collected the quotes:

• House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (Nov. 9): “We need to put an end to Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine.”
• Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Nov. 12): “With our new Democratic majority, we must defend our immigrant neighbors… abolish ICE, and extend TPS.”
• Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Nov. 10): “Abolish ICE now.”
• Rep. Delia Ramirez (Nov. 8): “Together, we will dismantle DHS and abolish ICE.”
• Rep. Juan Vargas (Nov. 8): “We need the people that are being deported.”

The message carried into the border states. Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa called strict border enforcement “a dog-and-pony show.” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said, “We will change our policy regarding contact with ICE… Elections matter.” Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin said Texas law enforcement should not be “aiding and abetting ICE.”

Not one of those officials told anyone to start walking. They didn’t have to. Smugglers and migrants follow American politics closely, and when the people about to run Congress talk about abolishing the agency that deports people, the migrants who would be deported hear an invitation. One caravan member, quoted by the White House, put it plainly: “We know that the Democrats are not going to let a point as big as the Latino vote be lost.”

The midterms changed Congress. They didn’t change the border.

Here is what the caravan’s hopes leave out: immigration enforcement is run by the executive branch, and the executive branch is still President Trump’s.

“Here we go again!” the president wrote Thursday. “Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico… But they will not be accepted! MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED… There will be no leniency!”

Border czar Tom Homan was blunter. “Congress may be more blue, Texas may be more blue, but the White House is red, bright red,” he said on Wednesday. “These caravans [can] come to the border all they want. They’re not going to be released into the United States… We’re not giving one inch on this border.”

DHS General Counsel James Percival said that if the caravan does reach the border, “they’re going to find a Border Patrol that is extremely ready. The President is still the President. The midterms don’t change that.”

Mexico’s National Guard and Chiapas state police are escorting the caravan, Quadratín reported, and it is the third caravan to enter Mexico from Honduras in three months. Many in this group say they want to reach Mexico City first, to ask the Mexican government for help and avoid being detained along the way. That is a long walk, and the president has just given Mexico a strong reason to make sure it ends there.

What it means

Democrats ran this fall as if the border were a solved problem. The people in this caravan show otherwise. They are telling reporters, in their own words, that they are heading north because of the election and what Democrats have promised since. The new House majority can hold hearings and pass bills. Under the Constitution, it can’t open the border on its own. As long as President Trump is in the White House, the answer at the end of the road is the same one Homan gave: not one inch.

Sources: The White House, “‘Democrats Will Help Us’: Caravans March North as Dems Vow to Reopen the Border” (Nov. 12, 2026); La Jornada (Nov. 11, 2026); Quadratín Chiapas (Nov. 10, 2026).

TNT Staff