Migrant Caravans Move Through Guatemala and Mexico as U.S. Embassy Says Midterm Results Change Nothing

Since Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, at least two groups of migrants have been moving north through Central America toward the U.S. border. Between 300 and 500 more crossed from Guatemala into Mexico on Friday, Nov. 6.

The Mexican outlet Diario del Sur reported that the Friday group crossed the Rodolfo Robles International Bridge into Ciudad Hidalgo and then started walking toward Suchiate. Independent journalist Julio Rosas posted the report on X.

Two caravans, one stated hope

A caravan left San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Nov. 3. It is the third to leave Honduras since September, according to the Latin Times, which reported that participants timed the departure to coincide with Election Day. Its reporting says marchers believed a Democratic Congress could weaken Trump's immigration enforcement or at least create political uncertainty.

A second group of Salvadorans left San Salvador's Western Bus Terminal on Friday headed for Tecún Umán, on the Guatemala-Mexico border. They plan to link up with the Honduran caravan, which CNN says is already moving through Guatemala.

"That's the hope," said Beatriz M., traveling with her husband and two children, ages 9 and 11. A bus company employee told CNN, "This is not the usual flow of passengers." The migrants spoke anonymously because of the dangers of the route.

Santiago, a Honduran who says he has been deported twice, told CNN: "We hope that with this change everything will improve for us." Juan, a Honduran who lived in the U.S. for 26 years and was deported Sept. 15, said Mexican authorities twice turned him back after that. His wife and two children are in the U.S., and he is trying again.

Not everyone is optimistic. CNN spoke with at least one man at the Guatemalan crossing, Aníbal, who did not share the view that the election will bring a warmer welcome. "Nothing has changed," he said. "Democrats and Republicans are the same, so if they capture us tomorrow, we'll just head there again."

What Washington is saying

Two days after the election, the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador posted a Spanish-language message: "U.S. immigration laws remain in effect. The midterm election results do not represent changes to current immigration policies."

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said the migrants will be turned away at the border. In mid-October, DHS said of an earlier caravan, "There is absolutely ZERO chance this caravan will be allowed into the United States."

The law is not abstract for the deported. Illegal reentry after removal is a federal felony, punishable by up to two years in prison for a first offense and up to 20 years for people with an aggravated felony conviction. Breitbart reported that some members of the October caravan had been deported in recent months.

The timing question

The claim circulating on the right is that Democratic victories triggered these caravans. The dates complicate that. The Honduran group left on Election Day, before results were known. An earlier caravan, "Fe y Esperanza #2," crossed Mexico's southern border in mid-October, when a Republican loss looked possible but had not happened.

The sources do show that migrants in the caravans cite the election as a reason for hope. Rosas wrote that with Democrats winning, migrants "will start making their way to the U.S.-Mexico border and wait until Trump's policies go away."

The numbers are small next to past surges. CNN notes that Southwest border encounters fell sharply after Trump took office in 2025, when his administration tightened border controls and began mass deportations. A few hundred people on foot in southern Mexico are not a border crisis. Whether the message that Congress can change enforcement draws more people is the open issue. The embassy's statement is blunt: the election results do not change current immigration policy.

Texas is the other variable

The Texas governor's office is also changing hands. Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin wrote on X that under Democratic Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, a future border surge would likely meet no resistance from the state: no Texas DPS deployment, no National Guard, no razor wire or buoys, no Operation Lone Star. Melugin says Hinojosa has called the operation a "dog and pony show" and "political theater."

Melugin pointed to the 2021 Del Rio episode, when 15,000 Haitians gathered under an international bridge. In his account, Texas DPS cruisers physically blocked further crossings on Gov. Greg Abbott's orders while Border Patrol was caught off guard.

That is Melugin's account and his forecast. Hinojosa's own plans for the state's border role are not laid out in anything gathered here beyond her criticism of the existing operation.

What comes next

The caravans still have to cross Mexico, and Mexican authorities have broken up such groups before. Mexico's National Institute of Migration (INM) dissolved the earlier caravan that "Fe y Esperanza #2" was named for. Whether the Honduran and Salvadoran groups meet the same fate in southern Mexico, or get close enough to test Mullin's promise at the U.S. line, remains to be seen.