Mexican officials help Central American migrants hitch rides to US border

Mexican officials again helped thousands of Central American migrants find lifts to the US border as they were pictured riding atop vans and trailers.

Police prevented migrants from waylaying trucks at a toll road in Queretaro but helped them to find other rides as they set off on Monday morning.

Some 5,771 departed from the area on Sunday as officials estimate around 1,200 would have dispersed from the "caravan" and remained at shelters in the area, including a football stadium.

Photos from the road showed hundreds boarding the tops of trucks, and stacking themselves into lorries meant for livestock as they continue their gruelling journey.

The route to the border city of Tijuana is still about 1,550 miles away.

Whereas the migrants suffered from the heat in southern Mexico in mid-October, they now trek to highways wrapped in blankets to fend off the morning chill.

Honduran mother Karen Martinez told reporters as she started walking with her three children bundled against the cold: "Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, but we keep on going."

As on other days, the migrants jumped at any opportunity to catch rides. They piled onto flatbed trucks, hung from car carrier trailers and even stacked themselves four levels high on a truck that usually carries pigs.

Miguel Ortiz of Honduras reclined in the pig trailer with his wife and son. He said they were headed to US for a better life where they could work for more than just putting food on the table.

Maria Isabel Reyes, 39, of Honduras travelled with her three daughters and a granddaughter.

"I feel happy by the grace of God," she said. "Because we're advancing little by little, but all of us here are moving forward."

As they press ahead towards the US, an executive order that Donald Trump signed on Friday to quash their hopes of entering has gone up for a legal challenge.

The President signed an extraordinary order using the same powers as his failed Middle Eastern travel bans to deny the migrants the ability to apply for asylum for at least 90 days.

The plan was immediately challenged in the federal court in Northern California by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other legal groups, who said it was illegal, and would endanger the lives of families.

Under current law, immigrants may apply for asylum regardless of how and where they enter the country. Mr Trump, however, said his action would require them to apply at a port of entry.

The Washington Post has reported that Mr Trump's move to send up to 15,000 troops to man the Mexico border has cost around $200 million - and would outnumber the Central Americans in the main group two to one.

"As far as the caravan is concerned our military is out, we have about 5-8,000, we'll go up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel on top of border patrol, ICE and everybody else on the border," he told reporters on Wednesday.

He faced criticism for "dehumanising" and "demonising" the thousands of people seeking a better life, and many believed to be escaping political hardship. At a press conference last week the President denied such rhetoric and said "we need the people. But we need the right people and we need them to come in legally".

Mr Trump has insinuated without proof that there are criminals or even terrorists in the group.

Many migrants say they are fleeing rampant poverty, gang violence and political instability primarily in the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and they have now been on the road for weeks.

Mexico has offered refuge, asylum or work visas to the migrants, and its government said 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.

But most vowed to continue to the United States.

"We can earn more (in the U.S.) and give something to our family. But there (in Honduras) even when we want to give something to our children, we can't because the little we earn it's just for food, to pay the house and the light, nothing else," said Nubia Morazan, 28, of Honduras as she prepared to set out Sunday with her husband and two children.

A statement from the Pentagon said last week: "The number of troops deployed will change each day as military forces flow into the operating area, but the initial estimate is that the DOD will have more than 7,000 troops supporting DHS across California, Arizona and Texas."