U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Thursday to double tariffs on Mexico unless it stops a migrant caravan travelling north, as families who left southern Mexico said Democratic victories in the U.S. midterm elections had renewed their hopes of entering the country.

Al Jazeera reported that more than 1,000 migrants began walking Tuesday from Tapachula, near Mexico’s border with Guatemala. The caravan, named “God With Us”, remained on the move Wednesday, according to Reuters reporting cited by the outlet.

A Chiapas state government source estimated that about 1,500 people were participating. Many were families, with parents carrying young children in their arms, pushing them in strollers or holding them on their shoulders.

The migrants, mostly from Central America, said their first destination was Mexico City, more than 1,000 kilometres away. The journey was expected to take at least several weeks. There, they hoped to seek Mexican government assistance and protection from detention.

Tapachula is a major transit point for migrants heading toward the United States. Thousands have become stranded there amid U.S. entry restrictions and deportations, with scarce employment, little healthcare and limited access to schools, Al Jazeera reported.

Some participants linked their renewed optimism to Democrats winning control of both chambers of Congress in last week’s elections.

“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 deported from the United States a few months earlier. “We believe the Democrats will help us.”

In a Truth Social post Thursday, Trump said the election outcome had emboldened migrants and warned Mexico to stop them or face doubled tariffs.

Separately, Mexican National Guard personnel, immigration authorities and police moved Tuesday to stop about 100 Central American migrants who had crossed the Suchiate River from Guatemala, AFP reported. Reports from Tapachula put the number detained at about 40.

AFP described the larger caravan as the third to attempt the journey since September. The previous two were broken up before leaving Chiapas, and participants received temporary stay permits.

“As long as Trump remains president, the deportations will not stop,” Ivan Porraz, a researcher at the College of the Southern Border, told the outlet.

Sources