Sasabe (Mexico) (AFP) - Migrants trying to sneak into the United States from the parched Mexican desert have to contend with border guards' drones overhead, poisonous snakes underfoot and human trafficking gangs at their backs.

But these challenges are nothing compared to their bigger fear: that someday soon, US President-elect Donald Trump will build a wall to keep them out altogether.

So before Trump takes office on Friday, they are racing against time, riding a freight train up to the border to look for a way across.

In the town of Caborca near the frontier, a group of Hondurans warm themselves by a fire of trash in the early morning cold.

One of them, Wilson, a 48-year-old builder, missed the birth of his daughter to make the journey. Getting to the United States before Trump takes control was more important.

"When I saw that man on the television saying how he hated migrants and was going to build a wall, I thought: 'It's now or never," said Wilson, who would not give his last name.

"So we all spent Christmas and New Year traveling to try to get here in time. We want to beat him to it." [More]