U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin said a new migrant caravan headed to the U.S. from Honduras has “zero chance” of making it to the United States’ southern border.
After more than a week of walking north from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a migrant caravan has grown from an estimated 300 strong to nearly 600 after entering the Mexican border state of Chiapas. The caravan that departed southern Mexico on Sunday hopes to reach the United States, despite no organized caravan having done so since the end of the Biden border crisis.
The “Fe y Esperanza” caravan is now mostly comprised of nearly 600 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. According to a Spanish-language report in Diario de Chiapas, the group of men, women, and children is taking the well-traveled route along the coastal highway in Chiapas, despite acknowledging that strict border enforcement policies enacted under the Trump administration are being firmly enforced.
According to the Diario de Chiapas, most of the Honduran migrants have recently been deported from the United States, have only spent a short amount of time in their home country, and are now hoping to resume the American dream. The caravan of nearly 600 migrants is dwarfed by previous caravans that included more than 10,000 migrants and were believed to be the largest group to attempt the journey in May 2022.
According to a source within DHS, the Border Patrol will actively monitor the caravan and track the progress north from the Mexican border state of Chiapas. The source told Breitbart Texas that the group will likely be broken up before it can leave the southern states of Mexico, as all others have this year. “Compared to the more than 10,000 migrants that were hitting the border daily four years ago, we are prepared to deal with 600, but the odds of seeing them reach the border are highly unlikely,” the source emphasized.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, a similar caravan attempted to cross in April and quickly dissolved after Mexican authorities intervened and returned many in the group to southern Mexico. The group marched more than 90 miles before returning to Tapachula, hoping authorities at Mexico’s National Institute of Migration would expedite their formal refugee status, which would allow them to travel away from the border region and find employment in Mexico.
Most migrants in recent caravans have not expressed interest in entering the United States, but rather hope to reach Mexico City or other large metropolitan areas farther north in Mexico, where employment opportunities are more plentiful than in Tapachula.
Migrants stranded in the Mexican border city of Tapachula as they wait for refugee status in Mexico have long complained of a lack of employment opportunities, and when employment can be found, most say they are working for low wages and for long hours.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the first caravan of 2026, organized under the nickname “Genesis” in March, faced similar hardship and failure. Mexico’s INM quickly dissolved that caravan before it could exit the border state of Chiapas in early April.
Migrants in Mexico without legal refugee status cannot work in factories or shops and are ineligible for social security benefits from the Mexican government. A lack of legal status also creates a situation that allows employers to exploit the migrants’ labor. The group of migrants has made claims that their applications for refugee status are being ignored by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR) and the National Institute of Migration (INM).
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Before retiring, he served as Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.
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