10,000

But it is dawning on many of them that the shelter could be their home for months if they decide to seek legal entry into the United States.

“We have to wait — for how long?” asked Lenin Herrera Batres, 20, who joined the caravan with his wife and their 2-yearold son to escape threats after the couple witnessed a murder in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

“We don’t have the money to stay here for one month, two months,” he said, his voice trailing off.

Less than a week old, the shelter has assumed the squalor of an overwhelmed refugee camp, and the rhythms of enforced idleness have taken hold. One group spends hours ■ watching karaoke singers at an end of the basketball courts there, while men bet on cards at the other. Children dart around a playground. Women fold donated blankets in the reflexive gestures of tidying up at home, now just a tiny patch under a large tent. City officials, who fear that as many as 10,000 migrants from this caravan and two more behind it may ultimately alight in Tijuana in the coming weeks, are scrambling to provide for them.

“No city can be prepared for the arrival of 5,000 people over three to four days. We are doing what’s humanely possible,” said Cesar Palencia Chavez, director of migrant services for Tijuana.

The number of migrants at the shelter swelled to almost 2,500 this weekend, with room for only 1,000 more.

But an estimated 3,400 are waiting in Mexicali, a border city 2 1/2 hours to the east.

migrants from caravan and two more behind it expected in Tijuana

migrants have already arrived in nearby border city of Mexicali

AP An anti-migrant demonstrator is surrounded by the press as she argues with a woman during a protest against the presence of thousands of Central American migrants in Tijuana, Mexico.