Central American migrants and others look on along the border structure, in Tijuana, Mexico Wednesday,

Hundreds of refugees and migrants that were part of a caravan travelling from Central America has reached the city of Tijuana at the US-Mexico border.

In joining the more than 750 people that had already reached the city, there are now more than 1,500 migrants - many of them are fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Around 6,000 troops deployed by President Donald Trump are waiting on the other side of the border, having spent time building concrete barriers and erecting razor-wire fences to keep people out.

With US border inspectors at the main crossing into San Diego processing only about 100 asylum claims a day, it could take weeks if not months to process those who are part of the caravan that departed from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, more than a month ago.

Another 2,000 more refugees and migrants are expected to to arrive in Tijuana by the weekend.

Tijuana's factories are always looking for workers but the prospect of thousands more destitute Central Americans has posed new challenges.

Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Show all 8 1 /8 Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Checkpoint in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico Reuters photographer Edgard Garrido: "A small Honduran child cried as the oppressive heat, uproar from the surrounding crowd and hours of waiting with his mother to enter Mexico legally became too much to bear. The image conveys the plight faced by many families traveling with children in tow, where fatigue, uncertainty, and the elements have an added level of drama." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Mexico border gate in Tecun Uman, Guatemala Reuters photographer Carlos Garcia Rawlins: "This picture of men trying to pull down the Mexican border gate seems to symbolize the struggle at the heart of this story: the tension between the urge to find a better life and governments' attempts to control borders. Hundreds of migrants had gathered at dawn on the bridge that marks the border between Guatemala and Mexico. They hoped the guards would open the gates and let them pass through as they moved towards the United States. But the gates stayed locked and as the day wore on tensions rose and tempers frayed." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Crossing the river from Guatemala to Mexico Reuters photographer Leah Mills: "In this image, the young man holding the child looks so exhausted and you can see others clutching all their worldly possessions. To me this shows how desperate these people are. They are willing to cross rivers with strong currents, to lose any belongings they had, to struggle through the water with their children." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Resting on the roadside in Tapanatepec, Mexico Reuters photographer Hannah McKay: "I took this photograph at the end of my first day in Mexico covering the migrant caravan story. It was late in the evening and the migrants were bedding down for their second night in the town of San Pedro Tapanatepec, having walked 28 miles from Arriaga to get there the previous day. I came across this man sitting on the roadside beside a police car, watching as the officers helped settle the other migrants. Come darkness, these people sleep wherever they can to rest as much as possible before the cycle of walking begins again. The determination of the migrants to reach the United States is apparent. They are in good health, their spirits are high and they are hopeful that there is a better life for them at the end of this journey." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Crossing the Guatemala-Mexico border via the river Reuters photographer Adrees Latif: “In the river, dozens of migrant men had locked arms to make a snake-like human cordon from the Guatemalan side to Mexico, so no-one would get swept by its powerful pull. With one camera in hand and a 35 mm lens, I broke into the cordon to photograph the last group of migrants crossing. A family that had made it to the middle of the river was handing their children to other men to help them reach the shore. As a man grabbed the girl in front of me, I followed him, photographing, as he carried her to safety. Moments later, the last set of migrants crossed, and the men who had locked hands in the cordon all swam towards Mexico and started celebrating that the caravan had made it." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Hitchhiking along the highway in Guatemala Reuters photographer Jose Cabezas: "I've seen a lot of children in the caravan, and in every boy and girl, I couldn't help but see the face of my own six-year-old son. I could feel the parents' fear, the frustration of not being able to give them a decent life. While trying to reach a caravan of Salvadoran migrants in the early hours of Nov. 1, we found a group of migrants sleeping on the side of the road. At dawn they started walking, hoping to get a lift. Eventually a small pickup stopped, and the driver said that he was only going to take mothers with children. At that moment I could see the uncertainty on the faces of the children who did not know what was happening." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Hiking in the forest after crossing the Lempa river, the border line between Honduras and Guatemala Reuters photographer Jorge Cabrera: "A Honduran family with the father in front, a mother with child, and an aunt, carrying all their belongings, scramble up a hill in the jungle after crossing the Lempa river from Honduras into Guatemala. The family, part of a group of some 150 migrants fleeing violence and poverty back home, decided to wade across the river after seeing that Honduran authorities had formed a human wall, blocking the border crossing. For me this image underscores the fact that you can get as far as your feet will take you." Reuters Central American migrants trek north to seek a better life Checkpoint in Guatemala Reuters photographer Ueslei Marcelino: "The migrants had already broken through the first police barricade on the Guatemalan side of the bridge. After a while, they moved towards the second barricade on the Mexican side. The push by the migrants to enter Mexico had eased and suddenly women and children formed a line and started to walk towards the police. There was a bit of pushing and shoving, and then things started to get increasingly chaotic. It was a march that turned into a protest and ended up in confusion. Of course, it affected me. I'm also a father of a nine-year-old girl. It was impossible not to think about being that father caught up in that panicked situation. After taking the photo, I took others of families coming out of the restrictive cordon created by police. The confusion was brought under control after gas was used to disperse them, and the migrants were pushed back to the Guatemalan side." Reuters

Delia Avila, director of Tijuana's family services department, who is helping spearhead the city's response, said migrants who can arrange legal status in Mexico are welcome to stay.

“Tijuana is a land of migrants. Tijuana is a land that has known what it is to embrace thousands of co-nationals and also people from other countries,” Mr Avila told the Associated Press.

Oscar Zapata, 31, reached the Tijuana bus station at 2am from Guadalajara with his wife and their three children, ages 4, 5 and 12.

Back home in La Ceiba, Honduras, he was selling pirated CDs and DVDs in the street when two gangs demanded “protection” money. He had already seen a colleague gunned down on a street corner because he couldn't pay.

When he heard about the caravan on the television last month he was quick to move. “It was the opportunity to get out,” Mr Zapata said.

Mr Zapata said he hopes to join a brother in Los Angeles but has not yet decided on his next move. Like many others, he planned to wait in Tijuana for others in the caravan to arrive and gather more information before seeking asylum in the United States.

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Associated Press contributed to this report