During the Biden years, television reports frequently showed large numbers of migrants, often unaccompanied adult men and women, crossing Mexico and heading toward the open U.S. border, where they were allowed into the country, causing historically high levels of border encounters.
Many who crossed illegally were processed under immigration law and, in many cases, released into the U.S. while their asylum or other immigration cases proceeded.
After returning to office in January 2025, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and ordered policies aimed at stopping unauthorized crossings, including directing officials to prioritize preventing illegal entry and deploying additional federal resources to the border. By June 2025, Border Patrol reported just 6,070 encounters at the southern border, a historic low, and said no migrants were being released into the interior that month.
Now, as a caravan of more than 600 Honduran migrants is reportedly headed toward America, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning that the days of catch and release are over and that former President Joe Biden's disastrous open border policies have been sealed shut.
The DHS has made it clear that anyone attempting to illegally enter the United States will be apprehended, prosecuted and removed from the country.
Chris Clem, the former chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol, recently told Fox News the caravan is all about the midterm elections, and the participants are hoping for a blue wave.
"I think this is just about propaganda to bring some kind of sympathetic plight to the migrants that are in violation of U.S. laws when they enter illegally," he noted. "But this is really about showing some kind of opportunity at the midterms. We saw this play out in 2018. We saw this play out again in 2020. They're coming here to try to make a point against these strong enforcement policies by this administration."
Clem said the Democrats' calls to eliminate United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement and give blanket amnesty to illegals are ridiculous.
"These are enforcement agents and officers across the country enforcing the laws that Congress has passed," he summarized. "We already have a humane immigration system when you come in here the right way. We already have a pathway to citizenship if you come in the right way."
