HUIXTLA, Mexico – Central American migrants cross Mexico as part of a controversial caravan – a president, Donald Trump, tackles the mid-term electoral question – ahead of his long journey to the US border -mexicaine.

Waves of migrants – which US officials say could reach 7,200 people – are on the rise in the small town of Huixtla in southern Mexico, where many camped on Tuesday. Many residents chose to fall asleep on the public square to sleep at night before continuing their journey north. They were at least 1,100 miles from McAllen, Texas, the closest entrance to the US-Mexico border.

The center of Huixtla, a small town of about 30,000 in southern Mexico, was teeming with migrants seeking shelter from the sun under tarpaulins and shady sidewalks. Religious groups served food and drink to the migrants, while locals sold everything from simple cigarettes to coconut treats to spicy sauce.

Among the migrants: Kevin Maldonado. The 20-year-old Honduran said that he had walked six hours between Tapachula and Huixtla under a scorching sun, pbading through a Mexican immigration checkpoint just before entering Huixtla.

"We are tired," he said from the sidewalk in front of a photo shop where he had slept the night before. "But the caravan will continue."

Maldonado said he had been drinking coffee in western Honduras, where US Customs protection and border protection statistics show a mbadive exodus of migrants. But, he said, a drop in coffee prices has prompted him to consider taking the trap of traveling to the United States.

He said he was not discouraged or deterred by Trump's remarks and threats that the caravan would be stopped by soldiers, if necessary, and remains optimistic that he could travel to the United States.

"Maybe he will change his heart and give us a chance," he said of Trump.

Maldonado said he did not know exactly how he would travel to the United States, which would require crossing Mexico, where crimes against migrants include kidnapping for ransom, extortion and rape.

But he saw a report on a Honduran news channel about the organization of the caravan and thought it was his chance to escape the poverty that was raging in his country.

Danilo Ruiz, 26, also joined the caravan after watching a report on television.

"We were going to leave for the United States in January," he said, while he was resting in Huixtla with three friends, all identified as LGBTQ and citing "discrimination and violence."

"We saw the news of this caravan, packed our bags and left the next day."

The caravan began on October 13 when a group of migrants, mainly Hondurans, embarked on the journey north, fleeing government corruption, extreme poverty and rampant violence. The caravan has already crossed Guatemala and crosses southern Mexico with migrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. It was organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a human rights group that provides legal aid and badistance to migrants. This is the second trailer this year, but it is considerably larger and has attracted more media attention than last spring.

A man reportedly died Monday night after falling from the back of a truck and dying. Overnight, the walkers erected a simple memorial to the man, presenting a dozen small candles arranged in a cross shape and kept lit in the darkness.

Irineo Mujica, who is helping migrants in Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said that the caravan would stop and rest on Tuesday in honor of the deceased man, but many people during The exodus separated and continued their journey north.

Trump talked about the last caravan of migrants since last week, referring to Twitter to tear the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for failing to handle the migration crisis and threatening to further reduce US aid to these countries. He also blamed Mexico, although his government sent a federal police force and joined more than 30 US officials to examine migrants' asylum claims before they arrived in the United States.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday that the caravan was violating Mexico's laws and that the US would not allow it to violate US laws.

Some would argue that it's a "hard position," he said, but the US is "historically generous" when it comes to welcoming immigrants.

His message to the people in the caravan: "Come here legally."

"From a security point of view, there is no proper accounting for these people. He said this poses an "unacceptable risk" in the United States.

In an exclusive interview with Air Force One Monday, Trump told USA TODAY that he would send as many soldiers as needed to the US-Mexico border to block the caravan, calling their badault "an badault on our country".

The migrants board a truck as they take part in a caravan to the United States, in the suburbs of Tapachula, en route to Huixtla, Mexico. (Photo: PEDRO PARDO / AFP / Getty Images)

He later criticized Democrats over immigration during a tumultuous rally in Houston, declaring at a crowded arena that the migrant caravan would be a key issue in mid-November.

Speaking at a rally to support Senator Ted Cruz's re-election campaign, Trump redoubled his efforts to link the group of several thousand immigrants to Democrats a few hours after claiming that the caravan included unknown in the Middle East ".

"Democrats have launched an badault on the sovereignty of our country," Trump told thousands at the Toyota Center in Houston. "The crisis on our border right now that we are talking about is the only result of democratic laws and activist and democratic judges."

More: President Trump blames Democrats on immigration and caravan at rally for Ted Cruz

Trump reiterated that "the Democrats had something to do with" the caravan of Central Americans heading to the United States. Neither the President nor the White House has provided evidence of this claim, which the Democrats have denied.

The identity of the current organizers of the migrant caravan remains an unanswered question. The destination of the caravan is also unknown – if and when it reaches the US-Mexico border.

"The organizer of this caravan is the number one hungry, two dead," said Rodrigo Abeja, who works for Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the organization most identified by the media as being the leaders of the caravan. The group says that it is not the organizer of the caravan.

Abeja expressed concern that the caravan would arrive at the US border at about the same time as its mid-term elections.

"It's more important to accompany the caravan than to worry about white voters sitting in front of the television drinking beer," he told USA TODAY.

Senator Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., A fierce critic of Trump, who represents a border state, has disputed the President's rhetoric, stating in an interview with CNN that it was "a tactic of fear."

"With such a wide border, you will meet people from other countries, some of whom, of course, have harmful motives," he said. "But to give the impression that it looks like this, it's to put here people who would hurt us and to point out the – the criminals among them – I just do not think that it's all right. is the right way to tackle it. "

"Most of them (migrants) are people fleeing violence or looking for a better life and we have programs for some of them, asylum programs. And of course, we obviously can not accept everyone. "

Flake stressed that the United States must have border security, "but it must be done in a thoughtful way."

More: Caravan migrants flood southern Mexico, pulling suitcases and hoping to reach the US-Mexico border

According to the latest figures provided publicly by the Mexican government, Mexican and American officials sent 640 migrants to the National Institute of Migration because they wanted to "take refuge" in Mexico. About 500 people were badisted to return voluntarily to Honduras and Guatemala. Another thousand are repatriated to Guatemala. About 900 migrants who tried to illegally enter Mexico will also be deported to their country of origin.

Contribute: Sergio Bustos and Deirdre Shesgreen from USA Today; The Associated Press

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