Several thousand more migrants in at least three caravan groups are making their way through Mexico toward the border. "The trip was so tiring".
"They wanted to stay together in a single shelter", Palencia Chavez said, "but at this time that's not possible" because shelters are designed for smaller groups and generally offer separate facilities for men, women and families. Some migrants initially refused to get off the buses that took them to the toll plaza, but police arrived and threatened them to exit the buses.
"CBP has been and will continue to prepare for the potential arrival of thousands of people migrating in a caravan heading towards the border of the United States", Pete Flores, the agency's director of field operations in San Diego, said in a statement.
Hundreds of young men from one of the migrant caravans headed toward the United States arrived at a border fence that separates Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California on Monday; some of them began illegally entering the US after climbing the fence.
Hundreds of Central American migrants from a "breakaway" caravan group reached the US-Mexico border Wednesday; prompting Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to head to the region as tension swirls. Larger groups are expected in the next few days, according to human rights groups.
As with the others, the LGBT faction are hoping to get political asylum either at the San Ysidro or Otay Mesa ports of entry.
But the caravan is moving far more quickly through the unsafe and sparsely populated north than it did through the south and center of the country, thanks to donated transport - sometimes from local authorities who would rather send the migrants on their way than host them in shelters.
An estimated 5,000 migrants are in the lead caravan now heading to the USA border, according to the San Diego-based open border group, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which is assisting the migrants.
The caravans became a campaign issue in the U.S. mid-term elections that took place in last week, with Mr Trump warning without evidence they were full of "gang members", "hardened criminals" and even Middle Eastern "terrorists". The move was quickly challenged in court.
Just the prospect of the arrival of large numbers of Central Americans already has fueled opposition of some Tijuana residents.
During the previous caravan, an LGBT group had a hard time during the two weeks they waited in Tijuana, according to Nicole Ramos, an immigration lawyer. He was staying at the same tent shelters set up for the first caravan at a sports stadium in Mexico City.
"Everyone has the freedom to do what they want with their lives", he later told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
