Looking at the journey of caravan migrants to the United States


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"I feel chills – I have a fever for a few days," Gomez said.

As they continue their journey of nearly 1000 km to the US border, here is a glimpse of the lives of those who have left everything to join the caravan.

It seems that few people in the caravan have funds and that some would have been hungry days ago without the generous Mexicans and municipalities who offered them tamales and pineapple juice along the way.

Many wear flip-flops, rubber shoes or sneakers that fall apart.

Like many migrants, Gomez had to deal with the overwhelming heat and torrential rains. At night, the members of the caravan sleep on the sidewalks and floors of the public square before getting up each morning to leave for their daily marathon.

Carlos Gomez takes a break on the road north, near Arriaga, Mexico.

Despite his precarious health, Gomez, an unemployed Honduran farmer, says he has no choice. He has left eight children in his country and the only way to earn enough money to feed them, he said, is to continue to progress and reach the United States.

"There is more work, the government has taken our land," he said.

President Donald Trump has lashed out against the caravan and described it as an organized effort by the dark forces to bring criminals and possibly terrorists into the United States through lax laws about d & # 39; immigration.

US and Mexico negotiate options for handling migrant caravan

But after a week of traveling with the caravan, CNN knew little or no organization.

People joined and left the group at will. Exhausted by the trip, many decided to return home.

The Mexican government said the caravan had been reduced to about 3,600 migrants out of more than 7,000. The caravan organizers say the numbers are increasing.

They escape hatred and persecution

Many migrants said they joined the caravan at the last moment, after seeing a message on social media or in Honduras that inspired them to leave a homeland where they had long since given up a future.

The rainbow flag on a road full of migrants carrying Honduras blue and white flags that Chantal Alejo and her friend, Stefani Rodriguez, carry out.

In the caravan of migrants, the lucky ones manage to hitchhike. Others must walk a marathon or more each day to travel to the United States.

Alejo comes from Honduras, Rodriguez from El Salvador. Both are 27 years old and are identified as transgender, making it a part of a community facing high rates of violence and persecution in many Latin American countries.

Chantal said that a message that she had seen on Facebook about the caravan made her immediately make a bag for the trip.

"There is a lot of persecution and no work," she said of her country. She and Rodriguez hope to be able to travel to Dallas, where they learned that trans women like these were receiving hormonal treatments.

They were separated from their families in the United States.

Many migrants in the caravan learned everything they knew about America through movies and TV shows, but not Bryan Colindres.

Colindres was six years old when he and his mother emigrated from Honduras to the United States after the murder of his father. He stated that he had never been able to get citizenship but that he had grown up more American than Honduran.

Nearly 20 years later, Colindres' American life is interrupted by an immigration raid on the construction site where he works. When he was deported, he left his wife and a 3-year-old daughter, an American citizen.

Bryan Colindres joined the migrant caravan in the hope of finding his wife and daughter that he was forced to leave in America.

Upon his arrival in Honduras, Colindres headed north, eager to find his daughter.

"It is she who needs me the most and I do not want her to go without me," he said. "I know what it's like to have no father."

Colindres joined the caravan in Guatemala and, when Mexican police blocked the bridge linking the two countries, he and other migrants spent about $ 1.25 to be rafted across the Suchiate River.

He has since left the caravan. Colindres took a bus to Guadalajara, where his perfect English helped him find a job in a call center offering customer service to the country he considered home.

Colindres said he hoped to earn enough money to eventually join his family in the United States.

They travel with children

Resting on a shady spot on the road to Arriaga, Mexico, Iris and her group were hoping that a car would stop to accompany them.

Iris's younger brother, Freddy, seemed to have fallen asleep in the sweltering heat, using his backpack as a pillow. Her nieces and nephews played with dirty stuffed animals by the side of the road.

"The trip was hot, and walking in the sun is the hardest thing," said Iris, looking at the children, clearly exhausted.

The 21-year-old was confident that he would be fine if he went to New Jersey.

Iris is sitting, holding her head, while her family collapses on the way to Arriaga, Mexico.

"I will do everything that will be offered, I will take the first available job," she said.

When asked if she knew how many miles they still had to travel, Iris sighed tiredly.

"Muchos (a lot)."

Nicole Chavez from CNN contributed to this report.

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