TECUN UMAN, Guatemala—A caravan of 3,000 Honduran migrants that has drawn the ire of U.S. President Trump began to mass near Guatemala’s border with Mexico, setting up a showdown with Mexican authorities who have vowed to prevent the group from continuing their journey to the U.S.
Tension was palpable in Ciudad Hidalgo, a tiny tropical village in Mexico surrounded by rain forest and banana plantations that borders Tecun Uman in Guatemala, with the two towns separated by a muddy river. Late Thursday, some 300 Mexican federal police officers equipped with antiriot gear were deployed to the border crossing ahead of the caravan’s expected arrival.
On Thursday, the Mexican government asked the United Nations Refugee Agency for help in assisting migrants filing for refugee protection at the border, as Mr. Trump threatened to deploy the U.S. military and close the southern U.S. border with Mexico if it doesn’t stop what he described as an “onslaught” of migrants.
Adding to pressure on Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Mexico City to discuss bilateral issues Friday with his Mexican counterparts. The migrant caravan will be on top of the agenda, U.S. officials say.
Mr. Pompeo is expected to meet with Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray, Foreign Secretary-designate Marcelo Ebrard, and departing President Enrique Peña Nieto.
The re-emergence of immigration as a pressing concern in the U.S. comes in the middle of heated midterm elections, and Mr. Trump has featured the issue in political rallies held around the country on behalf of Republican congressional candidates.
In Mexico, authorities say that any immigrant who crosses the border illegally will be deported. And requests for asylum will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, a process that can take up to four months. In the meantime, immigrants must stay at an immigration center.
Throughout the week, federal police aircraft arrived in the city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, with hundreds of federal officers equipped with antiriot gear. Federal Police commissioner Manelich Castilla is overseeing the deployment, as security forces erect checkpoints on roads coming from the Guatemalan border.
“Gentlemen, we have to be ready in case the wave comes to here, OK? If they advance, we close [the doors],” a federal police officer told a group of 30 police agents at the border crossing Thursday afternoon. Other officers unloaded shields and antiriot equipment from a police bus.
Despite the show of force, senior Mexican government officials say they won’t use force against migrants. “Mexico’s policy consists in respecting and protecting human rights” of migrants, Mexican Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said earlier this week.
The caravan, which started in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula on Saturday, split into several groups after entering Guatemala. The first to arrive to the border with Mexico took buses or hitchhiked. The last migrants of the caravan are expected to arrive later on Friday, migrants said.
On Wednesday, Guatemalan authorities arrested Bartolo Fuentes, a former leftist lawmaker in Honduras, for helping to organize the migrant march. A recent Facebook post by Mr. Fuentes said the caravan was a spontaneous movement by migrants who wanted to travel in numbers to ensure their safety.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, a conservative who won a presidential election last year marred by fraud allegations, said the caravan is being organized by his political opponents to make his administration look bad. Mr. Fuentes belongs to the far-left Liberty and Refoundation party, founded by former President José Manuel Zelaya, who was ousted in a coup in 2009. The Liberty party was part of the leftist coalition led by Salvador Nasralla in last year’s presidential election.
Some 900 migrants were in Tecun Uman as of Thursday evening, according to Carlos Barrios, the head of a Red Cross unit. Later, several contingents totaling 2,000 people arrived, with exhausted travelers seeking refuge at a migrant shelter and inside municipal facilities. Others slept outdoors in the town’s main square as local authorities distributed food and water.
Mr. Barrios said dozens of migrants with wounds, callous feet and sunstrokes received medical attention.
At the Guatemala square, many migrants shared their stories, fleeing from poverty, unemployment and the violence of criminal gangs.
“We just want to seek a better future. In Honduras, you work to survive and that’s not a worthy life,” said Dania López, a 30-year-old divorced woman who arrived with her three children. She said she earned just $62 a week. “The journey is really difficult. My son told me this morning: Mom, let’s pay a taxi,” she added in tears while hugging her 5-year-old son, Ariel.
Many say their final destination is the U.S., as they see Mexico as dangerous as Honduras. But many would be willing to stay if they get a job and find accommodation.
“My idea is to seek asylum in Mexico,” said Milton Duarte, who joined the caravan at its origin in San Pedro Sula. “If we are here, undergoing this difficult journey, it’s because we are the poorest among the poor,” said the street seller of juice who left his country after gangs extorted him.
Many migrants marched along the river banks on Thursday afternoon. “Let them know that we are going to cross to Mexico!” shouted a man clad with a cap in front of the crowd.
The crowd responded jubilant: “We don’t have fear! We don’t have fear!”
—Courtney McBride contributed to this article.
Write to Juan Montes at juan.montes@wsj.com
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