WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a stern message to the members of the migrant caravan weaving its way through Mexico: You’re not getting into the US.

“The United States also has a message for those who are part of this caravan or any caravan which follows – you will not be successful at getting into the United States illegally, no matter what,” Pompeo said at a news conference Tuesday.

“I repeat, the caravan will not cross our southern border illegally.”

Pompeo’s laser-focused warning came as President Trump continued to back up a more more dubious claim he had made about the migrants – that some were from the Middle East.

“There could very well be,” Trump said Tuesday in the Oval Office. “I have very good information.”

Vice President Mike Pence, who was in the Oval Office with Trump for a bill signing, said it was “inconceivable that there would not be individuals from the Middle East as a part of this growing caravan.”

On a background call unveiling new southern border numbers Tuesday, a senior administration official told reporters that they would need to contact Mexican authorities for details on the “actual current construct of the caravan.”

“And just to add on top of that, I think last year the Border Patrol encountered, embedded in these flows, something on the verge of over 3,000 special interest aliens from countries like Bangladesh and Somalia, etc.,” a second senior administration official said. “You can also just look at what we’ve already seen as evidence of what’s going on.”

That official argued that the United States wouldn’t be threatened by migrants – like those in the caravan – coming from the three “northern triangle” countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras if US law allowed them to be treated the same way as Mexicans, and be sent back directly.

“The unique nature of the border crisis today is that the aliens are being apprehended, but they cannot be removed,” the second official said. “History, common sense, logic all dictate that if the apprehended aliens were all sent home in a matter of days, they’d stop spending $7,000 to come up and get smuggled into the country.”