President Donald Trump on Thursday morning gave Mexico a blunt ultimatum: stop the migrant caravans marching north toward the U.S. border, or tariffs on Mexican goods will be “IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED.”
The warning came in a Truth Social post as a caravan of an estimated 1,500 people, mostly from Central America, moves north through Mexico after setting off Tuesday from the southern city of Tapachula, near the Guatemala border, according to Reuters and Fox News.
“Here we go again!”
Trump tied the new caravans directly to last week’s midterm results.
“Here we go again! With the perceived loss by the Republicans in the Midterms – I WAS NOT ON THE BALLOT- the INVASION of our Country is taking place again. Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico.”
He said many of those in the caravans are people “that various countries don’t want,” adding: “‘Send them to America,’ they say – But they will not be accepted!”
The ultimatum
“MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED. MEXICO, THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, THE VERY LIBERAL NEW GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, OUR GREAT BORDER PATROL, & ICE, HAVE BEEN SO INFORMED. There will be no leniency!”
Bloomberg reported that the president did not give Mexico a specific deadline to act, and that it was not immediately clear what legal authority he would use to double the levies.
Why the caravan is moving now
Reuters reported that the migrants set out hoping that Democrats’ victory in the midterm elections could open pathways for them to live and work in the United States.
The timing also comes as Democratic election wins threaten some of the state-level border enforcement Republicans put in place. Fox News reported that Texas’s Democratic attorney general-elect, Nathan Johnson, could drop the state’s defense of SB4, the Republican-backed law that lets Texas authorities arrest and prosecute people suspected of crossing the border illegally. Current Attorney General Ken Paxton stays in office until Johnson is sworn in on Jan. 1, 2027.
What comes next
The ball is now in Mexico’s court. Trump has used tariff threats before to push Mexico on border enforcement, and Thursday’s post makes clear he intends to do it again — with Border Patrol and ICE, in his words, already “so informed.”
Reporting by Reuters, Fox News and Bloomberg.