The migrant caravan is expected to become a key election issue in the US mid-terms in two weeks time
AFTER hordes of migrants stormed the Mexican border to continue their march towards the US, the caravan has now swollen to an estimated 7,000.
President Donald Trump has voiced his rage that the now mile-long caravan was allowed to continue, and is quickly framing it as a key election issue in the mid-terms that are only two weeks away.
Trump has threatened to completely close the US-Mexico border and deploy the US army to stop the march.
He has sought to paint the Democrats as too soft on immigration, and at fault for making the US too attractive to asylum seekers.
Trump had insisted Mexico turn the caravan around, and while hundreds of police were sent to the border, they could not stop the marchers.
The migrants, mainly from Honduras, broke through fences or ferried themselves across the Suchiate River which marks the border with Guatemala.
For the migrants, many of whom are fleeing poverty and gang violence, the entrance to Mexico meant another day’s walking under a blazing sun.
They stretched out on rain-soaked sidewalks, benches and public plazas in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula to rest.
Keeping together for strength and safety in numbers, some huddled under a metal roof in the city's main plaza Sunday night.
Others lay exhausted in the open air, with only thin sheets of plastic to protect them from ground soggy from an intense evening shower.
Father-of-four Jose Mejia from San Pedro Sula, said: "We are going to sleep here in the street, because we have nothing else.
"We have to sleep on the sidewalk, and tomorrow wake up and keep walking. We'll get a piece of plastic to cover ourselves if it rains again."
Civil defence officials for Mexico's southern state of Chiapas said they had offered to take the migrants by bus to a shelter set up by immigration officials about 5 miles outside Tapachula, but migrants refused, fearing once they boarded the buses they would be deported.
Adela Echeverria, 52, a single mother of three, teared up as she spoke about her plight: "One of my companions went to look for some plastic.
"We are used to sleeping like this, taking care of each other. We don't want to be separated."
With the midterm elections so close, and immigration a strong polarising issue among democrats and republicans, the future of the caravan is political.
After blaming the Democrats for "weak laws" on immigration a few days earlier, Trump tweeted: "The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat party. Change the immigration laws NOW!"
The last caravan of this kind – which was far smaller - was followed soon after by Trump’s controversial child separation policy.
Trump has also threatened to cut off aid to a number of South American countries if the migrations continue.
Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador suggested Sunday that the United States, Canada and Mexico work out a joint plan for funding development in the poor areas of Central America and southern Mexico.
"In this way we confront the phenomenon of migration, because he who leaves his town does not leave for pleasure but out of necessity," said Lopez Obrador, who takes office December 1.
The migrant caravan, which started out more than a week ago with less than 200 participants, has drawn additional people along the way and it swelled to an estimated 5,000 Sunday.
In interviews along the journey, migrants have said they are fleeing widespread violence, poverty and corruption in Honduras.
The caravan is unlike previous mass migrations for its unprecedented large numbers and because it largely began spontaneously through word of mouth.
Migrants received help Sunday from sympathetic Mexicans who offered food, water and clothing.
Hundreds of locals driving pickups, vans and cargo trucks stopped to let them clamber aboard.
Ulises Garcia, a Red Cross official, said some migrants with injuries from their hard trek refused to be taken to clinics or hospitals, because they didn't want to leave the caravan.
Garcia said: "We have had people who have ankle or shoulder injuries, from falls during the trip, and even though we have offered to take them somewhere where they can get better care, they have refused, because they fear they'll be detained and deported.
"They want to continue on their way."
Jesus Valdivia, of Tuxtla Chico, Mexico, was one of the many who pulled his pickup truck over to let 10 or even 20 migrants hop in at a time, sometimes causing vehicles' springs to groan under the weight.
"You have to help the next person. Today it's for them, tomorrow for us," Valdivia said, adding that he was getting a valuable gift from those he helped.
"From them we learn to value what they do not have."
Passing freight trucks were quickly boarded by dozens of migrants, and straining tuk-tuks carried as many as a half-dozen.
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