A caravan of about 200 migrants set out Sunday from El Salvador, the latest of such groups of Central American migrants heading to the US, even as US President Donald Trump pledges to turn back those seeking asylum at the border.

The group gathered in a square in the west of capital city San Salvador, then heading out together by bus to Sonsonate.

From there, the migrants, including many families with children, decked out in warm clothes and backpacks, said they would travel to Guatemala by bus, and on to the US.

They cite gang violence and desperate poverty as reasons for their determined departure.

The group from El Salvador was at least the fourth caravan to set off sincea first, large-scale mobilization

in neighboring Honduras, which departed on October 13 from the crime-wracked northern city of San Pedro Sula.

Men from Mexico climb the US-Mexico border wall in Playas de Tijuana, November 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

That caravan quickly grew to thousands as it moved north on daily 30-mile (50-km) treks. Many of its members were still winding their way on Sunday through Mexico toward the US border, where hundreds of early arrivals have been waiting since last week to cross.

Ahead of the November 6 midterm US congressional elections, President Donald Trump denounced the large caravan as an invasion that threatened American national security and sent thousands of active-duty US troops to the border with Mexico. Trump has not publicly focused on the caravan since the election.

Far to the north on Sunday, in the city of Tijuana that abuts California, hundreds of people from the larger caravan braced for planned protests from local Mexicans both in favor and against them.

Just over the northern border, nearly 6,000 US troops in recent days have stretched barbed wire to dissuade illegal entries.

US immigration authorities, meanwhile, barred passage to dozens of the migrants who in recent days formed orderly lines to enter through the San Ysidro Port of Entry connecting Mexico to San Diego.

(REUTERS)