Three Central American Migrant Groups Press North

Photo: Nadège Mazars for The WSJ

A caravan of about 1,000 people crossed into Mexico and began trekking towards the U.S. behind a larger caravan

A caravan of about 1,000 Central American migrants crossed into Mexico and began trekking north on Tuesday, a few hundred miles behind a larger caravan also headed to the U.S. border.

The two caravans, plus a third smaller one from El Salvador, are part of an exodus of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico that is straining U.S.-Mexico ties and a target of President Donald Trump’s ire before next week’s midterm U.S. elections. Mr. Trump, who called the caravans an invasion, this week ordered some 5,200 military troops deployed to the U.S. border to prevent illegal border crossings.

The second migrant group illegally crossed the shallow Suchiate River that divides Mexico and Guatemala late on Monday, Mexican officials said, a day after scores of them clashed with police who had denied them entry at the official crossing. A Honduran was killed in the melee.

This time they crossed the river. Mexico’s government has instructed security forces not to use force against the migrants. The government has offered them asylum but most want to press on to the U.S.

On Tuesday, the second caravan trekked north to Tapachula, a traditional migrant stop in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Many migrants said they hoped to catch up to the first caravan that entered Mexico two weeks ago. That group is now in Oaxaca state, still some 900 miles away from the nearest U.S. point of entry, at least a month’s journey at their current pace.

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