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Pueblo Sin Fronteras also runs a shelter for migrants.

Abeja said this year's caravan is different from previous years and there is cause for concern, but not of the sort Trump raised in his tweets.

Abeja, who has been helping out with the caravans since 2013, said about 1,175 people were taking part in the caravan this year, with some fleeing gang violence in El Salvador and many more from Honduras than in previous years.

“About 80 percent of them are from Honduras," he said. "We have around 300 minors ranging from 1-month-old to 11-years-old. As of the rest of the people, we have about 20 youths who identify as LGBT and about 400 women."

Abejas said the Hondurans in the caravan are fleeing the continuing political crisis and violence there that escalated in November with the election of President Juan Orlando Hernández. His election was seen as rigged and was followed by violent protests that were shut down with a military-enforced curfew.

At least 30 people were killed during Honduras’ election aftermath.

The Organization of American States called for an election do-over after finding "irregularities and deficiencies” in the Honduran electoral process. But the United States recognized the election’s outcome without insisting on another election or a review of the results.

The Obama administration faced a surge in arrivals from Central America, mostly women and children, at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014. The numbers forced the administration to set up emergency shelters and a family detention center in Texas. The administration also was criticized for some of the steps it took to stem the surge.

Trump shut down the Central American Minors Program, which was set up by the Obama administration to provide a way for Central American children, and later young adults rejected for refugee status, to get a temporary stay in the U.S. if they had parents already here.