CHIAPAS, Mexico — Kesler Steven, 12, was crossing from Guatemala into Mexico along with thousands of migrants fleeing from Honduras when fights broke out.

Kesler said people began throwing sticks. Then the police threw tear gas.

"At first I didn't feel anything, but later I got dizzy and I couldn't feel my body," he said. "I felt everything hard. I wasn't even able to walk anymore."

In the chaos, Kesler temporarily lost track of his mother Isis Ramirez, 32. They were later reunited before the family arrived at a temporary shelter in Ciudad Hidalgo, a city in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala.

On Saturday, hundreds of migrants waited at the shelter before they were expected to continue to the U.S.-Mexico border, more than 1,000 miles away. The group is part of a caravan of approximately 4,000 immigrants fleeing Central America. On Thursday night, a portion of the group split off and crossed from Guatemala into Mexico. The approximately 2,000 to 3,000 migrants remaining in the Guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman began crossing hours after the first group.

Mexican authorities were only letting small groups at a time into the country, rather than allowing mass entry, according to The Associated Press, which estimated that as many as 3,000 people had entered by Saturday.

The caravan began with hundreds preparing to leave Honduras, and grew in size after media coverage. Many of the travelers, which included families with young infants, had already planned to leave the country and felt that traveling in a group would lessen the risk of falling victim to robbery and assault.

Mexican authorities said on Saturday that 640 migrants from the caravan have presented asylum claims to the Mexican government, but it was unclear how many entered the country in total.

As the migrants arrived in Ciudad Hidalgo, they were warmly greeted with cheers and applause by the local community. Volunteers cooked and handed out meals on the street as the group approached the temporary shelter.

Inside the shelter, groups rested on blankets and slept on tiled floors beneath colorful dangling paper decorations. Others stood together, discussing what would happen next.