TAPACHULA, Mexico—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.
“The mission is to join the other caravan and get to the border together. Together, we are stronger,” said Edwin Bonilla, 33, a skinny Honduran from La Ceiba, on the Honduran Caribbean coast, removing his sneakers to reveal three big, white blisters.
Meanwhile, a third caravan—with about 500 migrants from El Salvador—began arriving Tuesday to Tecún Umán, a Guatemalan border town, and intended to cross the Suchiate River into Mexico Tuesday, according to local press reports.
Caravans are fast becoming an increasingly popular way to try to migrate to the U.S. because they skirt smugglers’ fees and find safety in numbers, migrants say. The international attention the caravans receive also helps them get food and water along the way from charities mostly run by churches.
The first caravan now has about 4,000 people after hundreds of people dropped out and asked Mexico’s government to return them to Honduras. More than 2,100 migrants have also filed for asylum, Mexican authorities say. Most of them are in a government-run shelter in Tapachula.
A greater percentage of the second caravan appear to be young men compared with the first group. But there are also pregnant women, single mothers and complete families. They say they are fleeing from poverty, unemployment and violence. Many carry a bottle of water in one hand and their belongings, a backpack in most cases, in the other.
“They come dehydrated and very tired,” said José Trujillo, a doctor working for the civil protection agency of Chiapas state. He assisted 15 people on Tuesday morning.
One of those families is that of Miguel Cáceres and Esmeralda González, both 27 years old. Mr. Cáceres pushes a baby carriage stuffed with their baggage, while his wife breast-feeds their 11-month daughter Esmeralda, who is bathed in sweat. His 5-year-old son Ángel plays with an umbrella they use to get protection from the sun.
The family decided it was time to leave their home when they learned that the first caravan had crossed to Mexico, and that another group was forming in Tecún Umán, said Mr. Cáceres. The four took several buses, crossed Guatemala and got to Tecún Umún on Friday.
“When you have fear for your family, that fear makes you walk,” said Mr. Cáceres, adding that his brother was recently killed by a drug dealer and he and his family were threatened. He wants to seek asylum in the U.S.
“What do we seek? The American dream, as everyone else here,” he said, walking quickly.
The walk’s difficulty has claimed vulnerable migrants. Dr. Trujillo examined a pregnant woman who fainted after walking hours in the tropical heat, giving her some water before taking her to an ambulance.
Mexican migration officials have largely remained on the sidelines. They send migrants who wish to apply for asylum to a shelter, but then deport them if they don’t meet the requirements.
“Anyone wants to come with us voluntarily?” asked a Mexican migration official to a group of 30 migrants who stopped to rest under the shade of a big ceiba tree. No one responded. The immigration official turned back and left.
Irineo Mujica, a social activist who heads People without Frontiers, an advocacy group providing support to the travelers, said the first caravan will get to Mexico City in the coming weeks, after which many will continue their journey north.
“Central America has turned into a hell. Donald Trump doesn’t get it,” said Mr. Mujica, who started a hunger strike Monday to bring attention to the migrants’ plight. The folksy 48-year-old activist who admires Mahatma Gandhi and Hispanic farmworker leader César Chávez was chained to a lamppost in front of a migrant detention center in Tapachula on Tuesday.
If the migrant caravans finally get to Mexico City together, they could be in the capital around the time Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador takes office on Dec. 1.
Write to Juan Montes at juan.montes@wsj.com
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