TIJUANA, Mexico — The first large wave of the migrant caravan arrived in Tijuana early Tuesday morning. About 400 migrants, mostly from Central America, rolled into the border city on nine buses. Some hung out of bus windows and cheered; at least one Honduran flag fluttered outside a window.

The migrants are reaching their final destination in Mexico amid inflamed tensions on both sides of the California-Mexico border. At the El Chaparral port of entry earlier Tuesday morning, people who have been waiting weeks to claim asylum said many migrant shelters along the border are nearing capacity. They expressed concern that the caravan would jeopardize their chances of entering the United States.

Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it was closing some northbound vehicle lanes at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa border crossings to prepare for the arrival of "thousands of people migrating in a caravan" toward the border. The agency said Department of Defense personnel were installing concertina wire and erecting barriers, barricades and fencing.

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Luis Bustamante, assistant secretary of the government of the state of Baja California, said there is room for about 900 migrants to sleep in Tijuana's handful of migrant shelters and churches. With the roughly 400 migrants who arrived Tuesday, Bustamante said only about 500 more migrants will find accommodations. Thousands more are on their way from central and southern Mexico.

"Right now, we can support [the migrants] but we don't know what's going to happen with the rest," he said, explaining that it's unclear whether the remaining caravans will also travel to Tijuana.

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On Tuesday afternoon, hours after their arrival, some young men who arrived with the caravan walked down to the Parque de la Amistad in Playas de Tijuana, where a colorfully painted section of fencing divides Mexico and California. Some scaled the wall and perched atop it, as more than a dozen Customs and Border Protection agents on bicycles, horses and foot watched.

One of the young men, Jesus Menbreño, said his dream is to cross into the U.S., help his family back in Honduras and make a better life for himself.

"I want to tell President Trump that we're not delinquents," he said in Spanish. "We are just looking for opportunities to work."

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Another young man, Kelvin, said he was deported to Honduras five months ago, but is trying to return to the U.S. because there are no jobs in his country and gang violence is rampant. He said he tried to claim asylum to prevent being deported, but didn't have sufficient proof of persecution. He said hopes to try and seek asylum again, so he can return to Louisville, Kentucky, where he has a wife and two kids.

"I don't know what else we have to prove," he said. "Everybody is leaving, so that means there's something wrong with [the country,]" he said.

People who are seeking asylum must demonstrate that they have suffered persecution, or fear suffering persecution, due to their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. In a June decision, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said being a victim of domestic abuse or gang violence is generally not an admissible social group.

Libertad Velarde, a Playas de Tijuana resident, watched the young men climb the fence. At least one shimmied down to the U.S. side of the beach and carved HONDURAS into the sand. Velarde said she was concerned that the arrival of the caravan could cause a succession of problems, including the closure of the border.

"The sad thing is that Mexicans are the ones who will be affected," she said in Spanish. "Those of us who live here have super bi-cultural lives. We shop over there. Some people work there and live here."

The migrants left San Pedro Sula, Honduras about a month ago, fleeing poverty, gang violence and lawlessness. The group — which at its peak included some 7,000 people according to estimates by United Nations officials — has trekked through heat and hitched harrowing rides on the sides of trucks and tractor trailers. By the time the caravan reached Mexico City in early November, the caravan had shrunk to about 5,000. The group rested in a stadium in Mexico's capital before leaving late last week to finish the journey to Tijuana.

The group that arrived Tuesday morning follows a smaller contingent of about 85 migrants, most members of the LGBT community, that peeled off from the caravan and arrived in an upscale Tijuana neighborhood on Sunday night. They were confronted by residents, who said they opposed the migrants' presence in the area, according to local news reports.

An estimated 5,000 migrants left Mexico City on Friday and are traveling toward Tijuana. At least two more caravans are en route to the country's capital.

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As the three caravans traveled north toward the border with the United States, the Trump administration deployed more than 5,200 soldiers to the southwest border, joining more than 2,000 National Guardsmen already stationed there. The troops will “harden and secure” the border as part of Operation Secure Line, according to the Department of Defense.

Trump is also changing asylum policy in an attempt to deter the caravans. Last Friday, he signed a proclamation that will deny asylum to immigrants who enter the U.S. without authorization. Immigrants typically are allowed to request asylum at the ports of entry or when they are apprehended while attempting to cross the border illegally. The same day, the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center and Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal lawsuit challenging the restrictions.

Erika Pinheiro, with the bi-national legal services organization Al Otro Lado, criticized the U.S. government for augmenting the military presence along the border rather than investing in more asylum officers and immigration judges. She said the number of asylum seekers waiting to make claims in Tijuana continues to grow, overwhelming local migrant shelters.

"There shouldn't be a line at all," Pinheiro said. "I just see the slowdown in processing as a way to create tensions on this side of the border."

She questioned whether there is actually room for 900 more migrants in Tijuana. She said she recently struggled to find housing for a family of six in the area's migrant shelters. She said the arrival of several migrant caravans will continue to drain resources for migrants. Tijuana is experiencing its most deadly year on record, she said, and migrants are especially vulnerable to violence.

"I think it's very clearly orchestrated and unfortunately, there are going to be dire humanitarian consequences on this side of the border," she said.

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Last spring, another caravan of Central American migrants arrived in Tijuana. About 400 members of that caravan requested asylum at ports of entry; federal officials interviewed them and found 93 percent passed the first test on the path toward asylum, by demonstrating that they had a credible fear of returning to their country. Immigration officials apprehended another 122 members trying to enter the country illegally; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not track how many of those people passed the credible fear test.

Rebecca Plevin covers immigration for The Desert Sun. Contact her at Rebecca.plevin@desertsun.com or 760-218-0021. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccaplevin.