The State Department said on Thursday, October 29, that over the previous week it had moved to restrict the visas of more than 15 people it says were "involved in organizing, facilitating, or promoting recent migrant caravans." The statement, issued by spokesman Tommy Pigott, named no one, gave no nationalities, tied the 15 to no particular caravan and announced no arrests or charges; the department's similar announcements of November and December 2025 also named no one. A visa restriction means the people affected can be refused a U.S. visa or have an existing one cancelled. The department says "investigations indicate individuals have recruited, coordinated, and directed large groups of immigrants" heading for the U.S. southern border. Caravan members give a different account of who leads them.
José Zelaya, a Honduran travelling with seven relatives in the first of this autumn's two Honduran caravans, told EFE in September that the group had no leaders "beyond hunger, need" (the Rio Times's English rendering), and when the Chiapas Security Ministry said in a statement that a man state police had detained was one of that caravan's organizers, his fellow migrants said he had not led the group. Members' plans differ. Zelaya also told EFE, in the same rendering, "I want to reach the United States." Of the second caravan, which left Tapachula on October 20, El Universal reported that the migrants said most want to stay and work in Mexico; Diario de Chiapas reported on Friday that members of the caravans it called "Fe y Esperanza" and "Sin Fronteras" are asking Mexico's federal government for asylum and, by their own statements, mean "to work temporarily" in Mexico "while the raids ... in the United States diminish, and afterward continue on their way."
What the State Department said
The statement, titled "Taking Action Against Caravan Organizers Facilitating Illegal Immigration to the United States," says the department "stands ready to use this policy to take action against individuals who knowingly organize, promote, support, or finance caravans that facilitate illegal immigration to the United States," and that "any of these individuals or any caravan participants" who apply for a U.S. visa or try to travel to the United States "will face additional scrutiny," with the department taking action "which may include refusing or revoking their visas." It closes: "Those individuals involved in facilitating or participating in such illegal activity will be considered for visa restrictions."
The department has announced similar visa actions before, under the same section of the Immigration and Nationality Act, among them one in November 2025 against owners, executives and senior officials of transportation companies, travel agencies and tour operators in Nicaragua, and one in December 2025 against executives and senior officials of a Mexico-based transportation company; those statements likewise cited "investigations." EFE noted that this week's announcement came five days before the November 3 midterms, and reported that calls for new caravans had recently circulated on TikTok in Honduras and El Salvador, "with hundreds of people answering yes, though without names of organizers."
What a visa restriction does, and does not do
EFE's headline used the verb "sanciona," which means sanctions or penalizes; in U.S. usage a sanction often means a Treasury asset freeze, which this is not. The statement invokes a policy "to restrict visas to foreign government officials and others who are believed to be responsible for knowingly facilitating illegal immigration," which Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on March 5, 2025. That announcement said the new policy would complement an existing "3C" policy, expanded in 2024, aimed at private companies that knowingly provide transport and travel services designed mainly for illegal migrants; UPI reported that the earlier policy was introduced under the Biden administration in November 2023. The March 2025 policy rests on section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which says a foreign national "whose entry or proposed activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is inadmissible." Inadmissible means barred from entering, and the standard is the Secretary of State's own "reasonable ground to believe," a discretionary determination rather than a court finding.
The same section says a person who is not a foreign official "shall not be excludable" because of "beliefs, statements, or associations" that "would be lawful within the United States, unless the Secretary of State personally determines that the alien's admission would compromise a compelling United States foreign policy interest," in which case the Secretary must notify the chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees, the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee of the person's identity and the reasons. Newsweek noted on Friday that this week's statement does not say how the department defines "support" for a caravan, "including whether humanitarian or legal assistance to migrants could fall within its scope."
A visa restriction is not a criminal charge, which would come from the Justice Department and a court, and it is not an asset freeze, which would come from the Treasury; the March 2025 announcement said some family members may also be covered. Profoundd reported earlier this week on the same statute used against 61 Colombians and Bolivians. A Profoundd search of English- and Spanish-language coverage on Friday, last rechecked between 18:40 and 18:50 UTC, found no indictment, Treasury designation or U.S. arrest tied to the 2026 caravans; the department's statement mentions none.
What DHS said
The Department of Homeland Security spoke before the visa action. On October 21 its official account quote-posted a Reuters video of the second caravan: "There is absolutely ZERO chance this caravan will be allowed into the United States. We will protect our borders — America is a nation, not an economic zone." Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in late September that the first caravan had "zero chance" of reaching the border, Breitbart reported on September 29. NTD reported on October 2 that Mullin told Fox News in a recent interview there was "zero chance we allow them to enter the United States" and that "we believe that this caravan will probably break up" before reaching the border; NTD also reported that Mullin said he had told his Mexican counterpart the caravan would not be let in if it were allowed to continue north, and that he believed its members were trying to pressure Mexico's government into granting them asylum.
The caravans, and the one detention on record
Two Honduran caravans have left San Pedro Sula this autumn, and accounts of their size differ. The first, "Fe y Esperanza con Dios," left on September 20; EFE counted more than 600, while El Universal and La Jornada put it at about 350, the Rio Times noted. In early October, Chiapas state police detained a Honduran identified only as Jason "N," whom the state security ministry called one of the caravan's organizers, citing an Interpol Red Notice requested by Honduras; the ministry did not say what crime he is accused of. His traveling companions "denied the accusations and said his role in the caravan was to provide support, especially to women and children," El Congresista reported from Diario de Chiapas. That was Mexico's detention, on a Honduran warrant, and the only detention of an alleged caravan organizer found in the English- and Spanish-language coverage Profoundd read through Friday afternoon; the State Department's statement does not mention it. The caravan was dissolved at Arriaga on October 12 after the National Migration Institute offered transit permits on condition the migrants board buses to Tuxtla Gutiérrez; most accepted, La Jornada reported.
The second, "Sin Fronteras," left San Pedro Sula on October 13 and left Tapachula on October 20 under a banner reading "Fe y esperanza; emigrar no es un delito" (faith and hope; emigrating is not a crime), with about 500 people by El Universal's count. Yesenia Rivera and her husband, Alberto Flores, decided to migrate because they could no longer afford to support themselves and their two children in Progreso, Yoro, La Jornada reported; Rivera told the paper: "We want to stay in Mexico for a while, but further on, where we can find a job. Getting into the United States is complicated, more so if you have no family to help you." Julio Rosas, an independent journalist, spoke with some members of the group who said they hope Democrats win the U.S. midterms, Breitbart reported on October 21.
In reports published Wednesday and Thursday, the group, called "Fe y Esperanza 2," numbered 400 to 500 and was moving from Mapastepec toward Pijijiapan, with no confirmation it had left Chiapas, El Independiente reported. An EFE wire on Thursday put a September 20 caravan of "approximately one hundred people" still in Chiapas, which matches neither the Mexican reporting above nor EFE's own September count of more than 600.
Who the "organizers" are, according to whom
No source Profoundd read through Friday afternoon names any of the 15, and neither side's account can be checked: the department's statement describes its investigations in one sentence, names no one and attaches no evidence, and the migrants' statements that no one leads them are their own. In Honduras, La Tribuna reported on October 6, citing "the investigative police" and "preliminary information," that people "allegedly linked to maras, gangs and other criminal groups" might be promoting the call on social media; the same article said that "participation in a caravan, by itself, does not constitute evidence of criminal activity." The paper itself labels that a preliminary police hypothesis. La Jornada reported that no mass exoduses from Central America had been recorded since July 2024, "a year in which there were also elections in the United States," and that the organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras said these movements "could have a political interest"; the Centro de Dignificación Humana, a Tapachula migrant-aid group, estimates that more than 60,000 migrants are stranded at Mexico's southern border without papers or work.
Profoundd searched on Friday, in Spanish and English, for a response to the visa action from Mexico's government, Honduras's government, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the Fray Matías de Córdova center in Tapachula, WOLA, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Fundación para la Justicia, and for any naming of the 15, and rechecked between 18:40 and 18:50 UTC. President Claudia Sheinbaum's Friday news conference, as summarized by UnoTV and Milenio, did not take up the caravans or the visa action; the latest statements posted by Mexico's foreign ministry and National Migration Institute, and by Honduras's foreign ministry, do not mention it; no response from the groups named turned up in news coverage; and neither that coverage nor the State Department's site named any of the 15. Newsweek reported that the White House referred its questions to the department's statement. The announcement was then about a day old, and Sheinbaum's next news conference is Tuesday, November 3; she cancelled Monday's for the Day of the Dead.
This article reflects reporting through the afternoon of Friday, October 30, 2026. Sources: the State Department's October 29 statement (and its Spanish translation), its March 5, 2025 policy announcement and its statements of November 17, 2025 and December 3, 2025; 8 U.S.C. 1182; the DHS post of October 21; NTD, October 29 and October 2; EFE via Infobae and Swissinfo; Infobae Honduras; Newsweek; UPI; El Independiente; El Universal, October 20; La Jornada, October 12 and October 18; Diario de Chiapas, October 30; El Congresista citing Diario de Chiapas; the Rio Times; Breitbart, September 29 and October 21; La Tribuna; and UnoTV's and Milenio's summaries of the October 30 presidential news conference. Spanish-language sources were read in Spanish; translations are Profoundd's.
