Who Is Backing the New Migrant Caravans?

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Washington is pressing Mexico to stop the marches. It should also find out whether American money is paying anyone to recruit, transport, or mislead the people making them.

By Francis J. Bell | South Florida Conservative | November 13, 2026

On Tuesday, families carrying children and pushing strollers left Tapachula, Mexico, in a caravan known as Dios con Nosotros. A Chiapas government source put the group at about 1,500. Some participants told reporters they thought the U.S. midterm election had improved their chances of getting into the United States. One man interviewed by Reuters had survived the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas. By Friday, Mexico’s migration agency told Reuters about 870 people were gathered in Huixtla, still in southern Mexico, while local estimates ran higher. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said no caravan was then moving toward the U.S. border. [1][2]

President Trump threatened to double tariffs if Mexico failed to stop caravans from reaching the border. Washington should put a second question to its own agencies. Who recruited these families, who paid to move them, and did any of the money come from U.S. taxpayers? If U.S.-based organizations are using federal dollars to arrange unauthorized crossings, why has Washington failed to identify and stop that conduct? [2]

The names Washington has yet to make public

On October 29, the State Department said it had taken steps to impose visa restrictions on more than 15 people it linked to organizing, facilitating, or promoting recent caravans. That announcement preceded the Tapachula departure. The statement gave no names, employers, or funding sources. The U.S. Embassy in Honduras had already warned people that traffickers and caravan organizers were misleading them about their chances of entering the United States. Neither statement identifies who financed this particular march. [3][4]

Local reporting offers leads. La Razón quoted Luis García Villagrán, coordinator of Mexico’s Centro de Dignificación Humana, on the number of caravans that have left Tapachula and his proposal to issue Mexican transit documents earlier. El Economista reported that the Colectivo de Monitoreo de la Frontera Sur raised concerns about the detention of caravan participants. Those accounts document advocacy and monitoring. The questions about who recruited participants, booked transport, and paid the bills remain open. [5][6]

Two U.S. organizations whose records merit a look

HIAS. The U.S.-based refugee nonprofit has a history of receiving federal funding. Its FY2023 tax filing describes helping people obtain legal status in Mexico. HIAS says its Mexico operation ended in 2026 and lists active programs in Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. Its Panama program has provided aid near the Darién Gap, including assistance to people traveling south in 2026. The public records reviewed for this article do not connect HIAS or a local partner to the November caravan. An audit should identify which federal awards supported the regional work, which local organizations received subawards, and whether any paid for recruitment, onward transportation, or referrals to transport providers. [7][8][9]

Catholic Charities, Diocese of San Diego. FEMA listed $19.6 million for the group in its first round of FY2024 Shelter and Services Program allocations. FEMA rules allowed transportation from a DHS facility to a shelter and onward to a destination after release from federal custody. The allocation table does not show what the diocese ultimately spent. The San Diego group announced in 2025 that it would close its migrant shelter as demand fell. A Catholic diocesan shelter in Tapachula was reported serving migrants and returnees in 2026, but the records reviewed here establish neither that it received the San Diego money nor that either entity funded this march. FEMA can show which carriers were paid, where trips began and ended, and whether the people transported had been released by DHS as required. [10][11][12]

What Washington has done, and what it still owes the public

DHS moved to terminate 156 shelter and services grants. The Government Accountability Office reported that a federal judge barred DHS from shutting down the program and withholding FY2023 and FY2024 funds while the case proceeded. That helps explain why a broad cutoff stalled. It leaves a concrete oversight question for Congress and the inspectors general: did agencies examine individual reimbursement claims and follow the money through subcontractors and local partners? [13]

Congress should ask State for a closed briefing on the people it targeted for visa restrictions, including their organizational and financial ties. It should require DHS and State to produce award agreements, sub-award records, invoices, and transport documentation for any recipient linked to a caravan. Investigators should compare those records with organizers’ public appeals and recruitment messages. If they find misuse, agencies should recover misspent funds. Evidence of intentional solicitation or facilitation of a specific unlawful entry should go to the Justice Department. [3][14]

What families are told can cost them their lives

Mexico’s migration yearbook, drawing on International Organization for Migration data, recorded at least 6,001 deaths or disappearances on the U.S.–Mexico border route from 2014 through 2024. In October, the Justice Department announced a 30-year sentence for a smuggler involved in the 2022 San Antonio tractor-trailer case, in which 53 people died. Those cases show what is at stake when a family acts on a false assurance that it can get across safely. [15][16]

What did organizers tell families about the odds of getting into the United States? Who warned them that the election had not changed entry rules? What help did people get if they wanted to turn back? Anyone who urged families onward should have to answer those questions. And Washington should have to show whether its own money paid for any part of that effort.