Members of a migrant caravan that formed in Honduras are charting their movement daily.
Organizers have told CNN they still don’t know exactly which route they’ll take. Much depends on the Mexican government and what routes the caravan is allowed to travel, whether its members are detained or held in certain areas and whether the group is provided with buses to speed their journey.
There’s a possibility some members will split off and try to make their own way to the US-Mexico border. Others have decided to stay in Mexico – or return to their home countries.
Here’s what we know about their journey:
Early Wednesday morning the migrant caravan continued their journey north, but travel conditions across three countries proved too harsh for some.
A small group of about 50 people stayed behind, some exhausted and with blistered feet. Others, with children too sick to continue, decided to wait for transportation from the Mexican government to help them return to Honduras.
Neri Alexander Manueles, 34, left his family and two kids behind in Honduras to find work in the US.
“I just want to stay three years, enough to help my family” said Manueles, who once worked for the Honduran Red Cross.
Manueles owned a small convenience store but his investment money dwindled and he was forced to pay taxes to the MS-13 street gang, also known as La Mara Salvatrucha.
“You can’t complain about them to anyone because they could be part of the gang. Even the police,” he said.
“I know I’m risking my life but I see my poor family and having to pay the Mara or they might kill me is no way to live,” Manueles said.
Asked about President Trump’s remarks that there were bad people in the caravan, Manueles said: “I’m no delinquent. I’ve never even been stopped by the police.”
Sam Rivera Maldone left Nicaragua 26 days ago because of the economic turmoil and extortion, he said.
The 27-year-old father of 2-year-old twins said he has many friends who opposed the government and were detained, tortured and released.
Rivera Maldone, who has another set of twins on the way, is now one of thousands of migrants pressing north through Mexico.
He sells cigarettes to make some extra money during the trek.
“At least I’m not out there stealing,” he said.
But the journey hasn’t been easy. Rivera Maldone hurt his foot jumping a bridge as police approached.
“I put God first,” he said of his journey.
President Trump, with senior military commanders in the room Tuesday, said he’s considering military options beyond just deploying the National Guard to protect the US border.
“We’re not going to allow these people to come into our country,” he said. “You have to come in legally and you have to come in through merit.”
Asked what legally could be done by the military, he said: “They can do a lot. They’re the military. Right fellows?”
Amnesty International representatives will travel to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas from October 23 to 26 to observe the migrant caravan’s journey, the watchdog said in a statement Tuesday.
They will “document the situation of the migrants, refugees, and people seeking asylum” and observe the response of Mexican authorities, according to the Amnesty International.
“The Mexican authorities must respect everyone’s right to claim asylum and avoid detaining them or using force against people who are only trying to find safety for their families,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, director of the Americas at Amnesty International, said in the statement.
Mexican immigration authorities began processing asylum requests for 2,727 Central Americans who entered the country with the migrant caravan, according to a joint statement released Tuesday by Mexico’s Foreign Ministry and Interior Secretary office.
Here’s a breakdown of the asylum requests:
Mexican immigration authorities also provided assistance to 495 Honduran nationals, who voluntarily agreed to return to their home country, the statement said.
The Mexican government estimates that 4,500 people are still part of the caravan. Caravan organizers and international aid groups, like UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, say more than 7,000 people are still headed north.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the administration’s hardline position on the migrant caravan on Tuesday, calling it a security risk.
“From a security standpoint, there is no proper accounting of who these individuals in the caravan are and this poses an unacceptable security risk to the United States,” Pompeo said.
He did not explicitly address the President’s claim about “Middle Easterners” in the caravan.
“The caravan will not cross our southern border illegally under any circumstances,” Pompeo said.
He urged those in the caravan to pursue legal immigration channels, such as applying for refugee status in the US or elsewhere.
“For those who say this is a hard-hearted stance, let’s not forget that the United States is a historically generous nation when it comes to immigration,” Pompeo said.
Asked whether it was “disingenuous” to tell migrants to apply for refugee status when the Trump administration continues to lower its refugee cap, Pompeo deflected about the US’ historic generosity.
The US Department of Homeland Security press secretary tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the DHS “can confirm” the caravan contains gang members and criminals, echoing President Trump’s repeated claim that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” the caravan.
Middle Easterners, South Asians, and others are also traveling through Mexico toward the US, tweeted DHS Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton. Soon after, DHS spokesperson Katie Waldman clarified that the tweet about non-Central American migrants does refer to the caravan specifically.
Houlton did not offer evidence in his tweets for these claims.
“Stopping the caravan is not just about national security or preventing crime, it is also about national sovereignty and the rule of law. Those who seek to come to America must do so the right and legal way,” Houlton added in another tweet.
President Trump was just asked again about his claims that Middle Easterners in the migrant caravan traveling toward the US. (There’s no evidence to suggest such a claim is factual.)
“Well, there could very well be, yeah. There could very well be,” Trump said.
When asked how he knows for sure, he said: “I have very good information. I have very good information.”
He also introduced Vice President Mike Pence to elaborate on the issue. Earlier today, Pence said it’s “inconceivable” there are no Middle Easterners in the caravan.
The US Department of Homeland Security announced today that September had seen the highest number on record for family members crossing the southwest border in a single month, and that 2018 was the highest total year on record for family apprehensions.
A senior administration official called the border crossings “a crisis that is unprecedented in our history.” The official said that the “tidal flood of aliens in non-removable categories” was having an “enormous” cost to society, particularly in low income and migrant communities.
The increase of unaccompanied children and families, as opposed to single adults, indicates that “we have a border crisis,” the official said. The large numbers of individuals seeking asylum make it “virtually impossible to deport all those we apprehend.”
The vast majority of family members apprehended come from the northern triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, according to the officials who say 75% of the unaccompanied minors come from Central America.
The announcement comes as thousands of migrants continued to make their way toward the US border.
President Trump made a brief reference Tuesday to the thousands of migrants making their way toward the US border, noting there are “a lot of people coming up.”
Trump said he believes the US has the “dumbest immigration laws anywhere in the world.”
The President also said Republicans or Democrats “who have common sense and don’t listen to their bosses” were needed to help get the laws changed and his border wall built.
He also tied the war on drugs to immigration reform and talked about a dramatic increase in illegal drug sales and interdictions.
As the migrant caravan heads toward the US border, the US Border Patrol released its annual end of fiscal year numbers Tuesday. The numbers show that 16,658 family members were apprehended crossing the southwest border in September.
It is the highest number on record for family members crossing in a single month, according to US Department of Homeland Security.
Here are two other incidents of high apprehensions:
Last week, the Washington Post reported unofficial numbers, which are the same numbers as those released Tuesday.
President Trump encouraged reporters to take their cameras to the caravan after claiming, without evidence, Monday that there are Middle Easterners in the caravan heading towards the US Mexico border.
CNN’s Bill Weir has been traveling with the caravan. On Tuesday, Weir was in Huixtla, Mexico, where they stopped to honor a migrant who died after falling off a truck.
“We have been playing ‘Spot the Middle Easterner’ for a couple of days now and have yet to turn up any,” Weir said. “These are folks from mostly Honduras fleeing both political and criminal violence there and now as they gain strength a lot of folks for Guatemala and now in Mexico are seeing this as an opportunity to follow a dream north.”
Weir said the caravan is more than 1,100 miles from the US border.
Asked for evidence about President Trump’s unproven claim that there are Middle Easterners in the caravan heading towards the US Mexico border, Vice President Pence said this:
Pence did not offer any examples of evidence to support the claim.
“We’re going to do everything in our power to prevent this caravan from coming North and violating our border,” he said.
Twice on Monday President Trump has claimed that Middle Easterners are “mixed in” with the migrant caravan. President Trump offered no evidence to support his claim.
The migrant caravan — which is currently resting in the Mexican town of Huixtla — will resume its journey early Wednesday, according to the caravan organizers.
The decision was made to rest and mourn a 25-year-old Honduran migrant who died falling off a truck during the journey on Monday. A memorial service was held on Tuesday morning with a prayer.
Organizers of the caravan were heard saying through a loud speaker:
The caravan will resume its journey north with the next stop in the city of Mapastepec, which is 35 miles north from their current location.
Reminder: There are still hundreds of miles left to go, and it could take more than a week for the group to reach the US border.
Here’s a look at where the migrants are now:
Another 300 migrants have returned to Honduras, the country’s presidential office said in a statement on their Twitter account Monday night.
Honduran authorities are also investigating 30 reports of missing Honduras that were in the caravan, according to their families filing reports that they lost communication with their loved ones.
A Honduran national who was part of the Central American caravan that is moving through Mexico was confirmed dead Monday, by Mexican and Honduran authorities.
Mexico’s Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida identified the man as a 25-year-old Honduran national.
This is the second Honduran national to be confirmed dead since the migrant caravan began to travel north towards Mexico last week. Another Honduran national was confirmed dead Saturday, when he fell off a pick-up truck that was traveling with the migrant caravan.
A senior counterterrorism official told CNN that there’s no evidence that ISIS or other Sunni terrorist groups were trying to get into the US through the southern border.
Twice on Monday President Trump has claimed that Middle Easterners are “mixed in” with the migrant caravan. Trump did not specifically claim that ISIS or Sunni terrorists are attempting to cross the border.
“Go into the middle of the caravan, take your camera and search. No – take your camera, go into the middle, and search. You’re gonna find MS-13. You’re gonna find Middle Eastern,” he told reporters moments ago.
He also tweeted this earlier Monday morning:
Trudging on foot in the sweltering sun, thousands of migrants left the Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday and continued their journey north.
A key unanswered question: Will Mexican authorities stop the massive caravan before its members reach the US border?
Mexican police have made a point of showing stepped up security, standing guard in riot gear as the group marches on. But so far, they haven’t detained the majority of the migrants from the caravan.
Still, suspicions are running high among migrants in the caravan — mostly Hondurans who say they’re fleeing poverty and violence. Mexican officials have been sending buses and offering to transport them, but migrants have been hesitant to board, worried they’ll end up trapped in government custody, unable to continue their journeys to the US border.
What’s next: On Monday, the migrants have a more modest goal for their destination: Huixtla, a town about 21 miles away. (That’s roughly the same distance the migrants traveled yesterday.)
What the journey has been like: Many of the migrants’ shoes were falling apart as they arrived in Tapachula. They packed so tightly into the city’s central plaza that there was almost no room to walk. Hundreds of people slept on the ground.
The majority of migrants are making their way on foot. But it’s also common for members of the group to flag down cars and trucks passing by and pile on to any vehicle that will take them.
There seemed to be little organization as the migrants streamed north and plenty of peril.
