(Photo: AP)

The first Central American migrants from a caravan traveling through Mexico toward the US in hopes of seeking asylum arrived in Mexico City on Sunday, taking up temporary shelter at a sports stadium.
More than 1,000 Central Americans, many fleeing gang violence and financial hardship in their home countries, bedded down at the stadium where the city government set up medical aid and food kitchens.
Ahead of US midterm elections on Tuesday, President Donald Trump has warned repeatedly about the advance of the caravan and ordered thousands of troops to the Mexican border, where units strung up razor wire this weekend.
The migrants arrived in the capital, nearly 800 kilometers from the closest border crossings in Texas, four weeks after setting out from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula.
"Our heads are set at getting to the US, to fulfill the American dream," said Mauricio Mancilla, who traveled with his six-year-old son from San Pedro Sula. 
Thousands more Central Americans were moving in groups in the Gulf state of Veracruz, the central state of Puebla and in the southern state of Chiapas, local media reported.
"This is an exodus," Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest and migrant rights activist, told reporters.
The US government has pressured Mexico to halt the advance of the migrants and President Enrique Pena Nieto has offered temporary identification papers and jobs if they register for asylum in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca.