Tom Homan just hit 17 straight months without releasing a single illegal alien into the United States.
This weekend, a caravan of hundreds left Honduras anyway – betting a Democrat Congress would change that.
Tom Homan went on Fox News and told the migrant caravan exactly what they're walking into.
The Border Czar's Message Is Three Words: Not Happening
Zero releases.
Seventeen straight months of it – not a single illegal alien released into the United States since Trump took office.
"I can tell you they won't be released into the United States," Homan said. "We're at almost 17 months of not a single illegal alien being released to the border, and that's not going to change."
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The caravan already moving north includes migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Haiti.
DHS and federal law enforcement are tracking their route and have a response ready before anyone reaches the border.
Homan made clear what that response looks like: turn them around immediately, or arrest them, prosecute them, and ship them out – to a third country if their home government won't take them back fast enough.
"As the DHS statement says, they'll be immediately turned around, or they'll be arrested and prosecuted and deported, maybe deported to a third country, maybe not their home country, because if the countries, you know, are slow in receiving their nationals back, we'll send them to another country,” Homan said.
"We have many to choose from,” he said. “So we're going to force the border. Border remains closed. And you're going to see, if they get to the border, nothing's going to change. Zero releases from the border under the Trump administration.”
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin confirmed both DHS and the Pentagon are prepared to intervene.
“The caravan has zero chance of coming into our country,” Mullin said during an interview with Fox News. “We have the most secure border in the nation, and we’re going to keep it that way.”
What These Migrants Are Actually Gambling On
The caravan isn't random.
The timing tells you everything.
Midterms are five weeks away.
The migrants moving north right now are making a calculated bet – that a Democrat Congress would handcuff Trump's border enforcement, cut funding for deportations, or reinstate catch and release through legislation or litigation.
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They've seen this playbook work before.
Under Biden, every surge got rewarded.
Every caravan that reached the border got processed, paroled, and released into American communities.
The cartels learned the rules.
The smuggling networks charging thousands per head learned the rules.
And now they're testing whether those rules still apply.
They don't.
CBP data shows border encounters are down 95% from the Biden era average.
Daily illegal crossings along the southwest border averaged 258 per day under Trump – compared to 5,110 per day between 2021 and 2024.
That's not a policy adjustment.
That's a complete demolition of four years of open-door chaos.
Homan Gets the Last Word
Democrats built a border strategy around making enforcement feel temporary.
Run out the clock, win back Congress, and the revolving door starts spinning again.
Homan's answer is that the calculus doesn't matter.
Trump made a promise.
Seventeen months and counting, that promise hasn't cracked.
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Cartels tested it.
Sanctuary cities defied it.
Federal judges tried to block it.
And the border is still closed.
The migrants moving north this week will find the same wall of enforcement every previous caravan has found under this administration – rapid removal, third-country deportation options, and a border czar who doesn't negotiate.
"President Trump promised that," Homan said. "He's going to keep that promise."
The cartels already know what that means.
Now the caravan does too.
Sources:
- Dmitri Bolt, "Tom Homan Has a Message for the Migrant Caravan Making Its Way to the U.S. Southern Border," Townhall, September 29, 2026.
- "All We Needed Was a New President: WH Touts 6-Month Streak of Zero Illegal Crossings," WGME/TNND, 2025.
- "Q1 Border Crossings Plummet 95% From Biden Era, Lowest in History," The Center Square, 2026.
- "DHS Boasts of 'Lowest Border Crossings in October History,'" Colorado Politics, November 2025.
- House Committee on Homeland Security, "Border Brief: Christmas Comes Early as the Trump Effect Leads to Another Month of Record Low Border Encounters," December 22, 2025.