Verified reporting
Reporting: the post and the caravan
President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social at 7:04 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, November 12, that "Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico." He wrote: "MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED." The post said Mexico, the governor of Texas, Border Patrol and ICE "HAVE BEEN SO INFORMED" and ended, "There will be no leniency!" Quotations are from the Trump's Truth archive capture.
Bloomberg Law reported that the president gave no timeline for Mexico to act, and that it was not immediately clear what legal authority he would use to double levies on Mexican imports. As of this article's publication, we found no proclamation, executive order or Federal Register notice setting a new rate or deadline, and no formal response from the Mexican government. The threat is a stated intention, not an enacted tariff.
The caravan itself is real and documented. Reuters reported that a group nicknamed "Dios con Nosotros" ("God With Us") set off Tuesday, November 10, from Tapachula, near Mexico's border with Guatemala. A Chiapas state government source estimated it at about 1,500 people, many of them families; AFP described a caravan of about 1,000 that entered Mexico on Sunday. Estimates vary, and we use the reported ranges rather than larger figures circulating online. Reuters said the group initially aims to reach Mexico City, more than 1,000 kilometers away, a walk likely to take weeks.
Legal / factual context
Context: why the timing matters, and what Mexico is already doing
Migrants told reporters the midterm elections shaped their decision. Cesar Sandoval, a 47-year-old Nicaraguan whom Reuters identified as deported from the United States a few months ago, told Reuters, "We believe the Democrats will help us." He told AFP he hopes for "another chance" to enter the United States.
Mexico has not been idle. AFP reported that on Tuesday, Mexico's National Guard, immigration officers and Chiapas police blocked a road after a second group of about 100 crossed the Suchiate River, and that around 40 people were reportedly detained; Mexican immigration authorities had not confirmed the arrests to AFP. AFP also reported this is the third caravan since September, and that the earlier two were broken up in Chiapas.
The legal backdrop matters too. On February 20, 2026, in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, the Supreme Court held 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. That ruling struck down the earlier fentanyl-related tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China and the worldwide reciprocal tariffs. Any new Mexico tariff would have to rest on a different statute that Congress actually wrote.
Sources and reading
- Donald J. Trump Truth Social post, Nov. 12, 2026, 7:04 a.m. ET (Trump's Truth archive)
Full text of the tariff threat; archive lists original Truth Social status 117603372250841698. - Trump Threatens to Double Tariffs on Mexican Goods Over Migrants (Bloomberg Law, Nov. 12, 2026)
No timeline given; legal authority unclear after the Supreme Court decision. - Migrants trek north through Mexico, buoyed by US election result (Reuters, via The Star, Nov. 11, 2026)
About 1,500 per Chiapas state source; departure from Tapachula; Mexico City goal; Sandoval quotation. - Mexico works to block passage of US-bound migrant caravan (AFP, Nov. 11, 2026)
Second group of about 100 blocked; about 40 reportedly detained; third caravan since September. - Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287 (U.S. Supreme Court, decided Feb. 20, 2026)
Held that IEEPA does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. - Supreme Court Rules Against Tariffs Imposed Under IEEPA (Congressional Research Service)
Summary of the ruling and subsequent Section 122 action.
Reporting above is based on the cited records. The section labeled “Our view” is editorial opinion. This article is not legal advice. Our Gadsden Flag is an independent brand, not a government or military organization.
Conservative commentary · Our view
Our View: hold the line, and keep the tools lawful
A nation that cannot control who crosses its border is not fully sovereign. When people tell reporters they are walking north because they think an election changed the rules, that is a policy signal problem, and the answer is to make clear that the rules have not changed. Unlawful entry remains unlawful. Asylum claims should be heard under the law, not used as an open door. The president is right to say so loudly and early, while this group is still more than a thousand miles from Texas.
Mexico has its own laws and its own interest in a safe, orderly southern border, and its forces already acted this week. Washington should press our neighbor to finish the job in Chiapas, as Mexico has done before. American leadership in the Western Hemisphere means expecting partners to enforce their own borders, not shrugging when smugglers organize mass marches through them.
But conservatives should also be honest about the tool. A tariff is a tax, and under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, the power to lay duties belongs to Congress. The Supreme Court said this year that an emergency statute cannot be stretched into an unlimited taxing power. A doubled tariff on Mexican goods would be paid first by American importers, manufacturers and families, at a time when grocery and power bills are already squeezing household budgets.
So use the leverage that rests on solid ground: full enforcement of existing immigration law, rapid processing and removal of people with no lawful claim, close coordination with Mexican authorities, and, if Congress wants a standing trade penalty for neighbors who will not police mass migration, let Congress write it and vote on it in the open. Secure borders and limited government are not competing goals. They are the same promise: the law means what it says, at the border and in Washington.
Mexico should stop this caravan. The United States should keep its border closed to unlawful entry. And every tool used to get there should be one the Constitution and Congress have actually put in the president's hands.