WASHINGTON, November 13, 2026 – Even before the crack of dawn appeared in southern Chiapas on Tuesday morning, about 1,500 migrants tossed on their backs well-worn backpacks, carried toddlers on their hips, and began walking on the federal highway headed north from Tapachula. Naming their march “God With Us,” they were still headed north as late as Wednesday, when another, much smaller caravan heading directly after them ran headlong into riot shields and National Guard barricades.
More than two days after Democrats took control of both houses of Congress on November 3. Nearly 1,000 kilometers south of the American border. Two distinct caravans to test if the outcome of America’s election night had made any difference.
Why does a pair of northbound marches in southern Mexico carry so much political weight right now? Since desperate families and smugglers often take the changes in U.S. elections as an indication that border policies may be loosened, while in the southern transit corridors of Mexico, the security forces continue to operate as the frontline barrier preventing northward migration bottlenecks south of Texas and Arizona.
The larger group’s journey started on Sunday night when around 1,000 migrants crossed the Suchiate River from Guatemala without any hassle and made it to Tapachula two days later. By Tuesday morning, a Chiapas state government official estimated that around 1,500 people, mostly Central American families who were walking with small children in strollers or on their shoulders, had joined the march towards Mexico City, which is more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away.
As for thousands of people stuck in Tapachula who lack work opportunities, quality health care services, and have limited access to the United States due to the U.S., the recent Democratic wins in midterms became a sudden ray of hope. “There might be a light at the end of the tunnel, a way for us to get in,” said Cesar Sandoval, a 47-year-old Nicaraguan who had been deported from the United States just a few months earlier, adding, “We believe the Democrats will help us.”
The Mexican government, however, did not waste any time showing that enforcement is still tough. More information about how National Guard soldiers, police, and immigration officials stopped another group of some 100 Central American migrants on Tuesday after they crossed the Suchiate River—deploying officers along the road and arresting around 40 people as others ran away.
And here’s the harsh reality that hangs over every mile of that northbound highway: a change in congressional leadership doesn’t in itself change executive immigration policies. President Donald Trump is still in the White House, and he has already vowed to raise tariffs on Mexican products if Mexico City doesn’t stop the northbound caravans. As Ivan Porraz, a researcher at the College of the Southern Border, said, “As long as Trump remains president, the deportations will not stop.”
In Mexico, stopping these caravans from the start has become routine business. As AFP reports cited in the article, this is the third such caravan trying to make its way north since September; the previous two have been stopped before reaching Chiapas, with those involved dispersed and given temporary permits to stay. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum made this point on Thursday, stating that no migrant caravan has made it to the northern border of the United States since Trump’s return to the White House.
Further down the hot highway from Tapachula, groups of exhausted walkers lounged against concrete barriers in the middle of the day, wondering whether to continue their journey to Mexico City or to take the temporary permits offered in the south. Whatever political fight will be waged in the now-divided Congress of Washington over the next few months, one thing is for sure: the midterm votes may be tallied, but the real border starts a thousand kilometers south of the U.S. border.
