It began as a group of about 160 people who agreed to leave together from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, relying on numbers to improve their safety on a trek in hopes of finding better lives in the United States.
Reports on the migrant caravan in local media quickly caught the attention of other Hondurans fed up with their country's lack of jobs and excess of crime and people began flocking to join in, swelling the group to more than 1,000 as it approached the border with Guatemala on Oct. 12.
The caravan's numbers continued to grow as the migrants walk and hitch rides through hot and humid weather. The United Nations estimated this week that it swollen to some 7,200 people, "many of whom intend to continue the march north."
Children appear to make up about 5 percent to 10 percent of the people in the caravan, which is currently in southern Mexico, about 1,000 miles from the closest U.S. border.
