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The "caravan" of migrants traveling to the US border has increased to 4,000 people, while the number of undocumented immigrants entering the country has soared, according to reports.
The large group of Hondurans – many of whom are children traveling with and without their parents – has split into two groups, some of which are now approaching the border between Mexico and Guatemala, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
The news comes as the number of crossings to the US's southern border increases, including the record number of undocumented parents entering with their children, according to the Washington Post.
US Border Patrol officers arrested more than 41,400 undocumented immigrants in September, compared with 37,544 in August, according to NBC News.
And 16,658 of those arrested were people traveling with their families – the highest number recorded in a single month, the Washington Post reported, citing unpublished statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.
This is an 80% increase over July, just after President Trump ended his policy of separating families at the border.
Groups of more than 100 parents and children went to the border, saying they were too scared to return.
"We get pounded every day," an officer at the Border Patrol in Texas told the Washington Post.
Trump receives regular updates on the number of people crossing the border and would be furious with the numbers, leading him to reconsider the reestablishment of the separation policy.
The separations have had a negative impact on the number of voters, but a senior DHS official said the migrants saw his end as a "clear signal" to cross.
"We are being crushed," said the official.
On Tuesday, Trump threatened to cut aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala if they did not suppress mass migration.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Mexico on Friday, where 500 federal police were sent to his southern border before the arrival of the caravan, reported NBC News.
