Central American countries have warned that large numbers of migrants have fled their homes since Donald Trump's surprise election win, hoping to reach the United States before he takes office next year.
Trump won the November 8 vote in part by taking a hard line on immigration, threatening to deport millions of people living illegally in the United States and to erect a wall along the Mexican border.
Trump's tough campaign rhetoric sent tremors through the slums of Central America and the close-knit migrant communities in US cities, with many choosing to fast-forward their plans and migrate north before he takes office on January 20.
During the 2016 fiscal year the US detained nearly 410,000 people along the southwest border with Mexico, up about a quarter from the previous year. The vast majority are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. But since Trump's victory, the number of people flocking north enabled by people smugglers or 'coyotes' has surged.
"We're worried because we're seeing a rise in the flow of migrants leaving the country, who have been urged to leave by coyotes telling them that they have to reach the United States before Trump takes office," Maria Andrea Matamoros, Honduras' deputy foreign minister, told Reuters.
Carlos Raul Morales, Guatemala's foreign minister, told Reuters people were also leaving Guatemala en masse before Trump becomes president.
"The coyotes are leaving people in debt, and taking their property as payment for the journey," he said.
US Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson said earlier this month immigration detention facilities were holding about 10,000 more individuals than usual, after a spike in October of migrants including unaccompanied children, families and asylum seekers.
Gang violence
Unemployed and tired of the lack of opportunities and endemic gang violence that blight his poor neighbourhood in the town of San Marcos, south of San Salvador, Carlos Garcia, 25, said he was looking to enter the US before Trump assumes power.
"There's one thing I'm very clear about," he said. "I want to get out of here."
Guatemalan Fares Revolorio, 27, arrived in the northwestern Mexican border city of Tijuana on Wednesday after a grueling 4,200-kilometer (2,610-mile), week-long trek by bus. She was waiting to cross into the US, where she hoped to apply for asylum.
Accompanied by her three children and her husband, she said she left Guatemala as it had become too dangerous. Her husband's brother was killed two months ago, and local gangs, known as "maras," had assaulted her son.
"They tell us the new president doesn't like illegal immigrants, but we have to take the chance," she said, as she struggled to hold back tears. "Nobody wants to die in a horrible way, and we can't be in Guatemala any longer. My children are growing up in fear."
Trump's rhetoric on immigration during his campaign was characterised by opponents as bitterly divisive. He promised to build a wall along the whole border with Mexico and force Mexico to pay for it, possibly by impounding remittances sent home by immigrant workers. However, he has rowed back on several of his more extreme commitments since winning the election and it remains unclear whether he will execute his threat.
Most of the migrants are Roman Catholic by background and the Catholic Church in the US has been vocal in its opposition to Trump's plans. Two days after Trump's election victory Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles vowed not to abandon children and parents living in fear of deportation. "This should not be happening in America. We are not this kind of people. We are better than this," he said.
Bishops also issued a strongly worded letter to Trump congratulating him on his election but warning him about his attitude to migrants. It said: "We will work to promote humane policies that protect refugees and immigrants' inherent dignity, keep families together, and honor and respect the laws of this nation."
The migrant issue was also to the fore when Pope Francis visited Mexico in February. At a mass on the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez, he referred to the "humanitarian crisis" of migration, saying: "Each step, a journey laden with injustices; the enslaved, the imprisoned and extorted; so many of these brothers and sisters of ours are the consequence of trafficking in human beings." His visit inevitably had political overtones a a time when it was so hotly debated.
The foreign ministers of Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala met on Monday to formulate a strategy to protect their migrants in the United States, in a show of regional solidarity.
At the meeting in Guatemala City, the foreign ministers asked Mexico for help to create a migrant protection network, liaise for coordination with US authorities, and to meet regularly for regional talks.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
