The Latest: Mexico seeking UN help with migrant caravan

A couple of Hondruasn migrant mothers carry their children as they continue on their trek to the United States, in Teculutan, Guatemala, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018. The group of some 2,000 Honduran migrants hit the road in Guatemala again Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States despite President Donald Trump's threat to cut off aid to Central American countries that don't stop them. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Honduran migrants walk past the National Palace as they leave Guatemala City at sunrise Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018 as they make continue their way north toward the U.S. Many of the more than 2,000 Hondurans in a migrant caravan trying to wend its way to the United States left spontaneously with little more than the clothes on their backs and what they could quickly throw into backpacks. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

GUATEMALA CITY – The latest on the caravan of Central American migrants trying to advance toward the United States. (all times local):

1:40 p.m.

Mexico says it will ask the United Nations refugee office for help with the arrival of several thousand Honduran migrants at its southern border.

Mexico's interior ministry says in a Thursday statement that the government will ask the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees to support Mexican agencies attending to the migrants.

Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray plans to make the formal request during a meeting Thursday with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres in New York.

Videgaray says that "for the Mexican government it is essential first to respect and protect the human rights and fundamental dignity of all of the migrants and to do so under a logical and humanitarian and respectful treatment."

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to close the U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico does not stop the migrants. The migrants have begun arriving at the Guatemalan side of the Mexican border.

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8:30 a.m.

Several thousand Honduran migrants who set out in a caravan hoping to reach the United States have passed through Guatemala City and now have their sights set on the border with Mexico.

Mauro Verzzeletti is a priest who runs the Casa del Migrante shelter in the Guatemalan capital. He says about 3,000 people slept there overnight and left around 4 a.m. to continue the journey.

Verzzeletti adds that "more are arriving."

The caravan has largely dispersed. In Guatemala City on Thursday morning, different bands of people could be seen walking together in a line, some boarding buses or trying to hitch rides.

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7 a.m.

U.S. President Donald Trump is lashing out over a caravan of Central American migrants trying to reach the United States, saying that if Mexico does not stop the effort, he will use the military to "CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER."

Trump tweeted Thursday that he wanted "Mexico to stop this onslaught." He also appeared to threaten a revamped trade deal with Mexico and Canada.

Trump did not detail his military threat. Earlier this year, some National Guard members were deployed to the border on a limited mission that does not include contact with migrants.

Enormous quantities of U.S. exports and imports and hundreds of thousands of people legally move across the border daily

More than 2,000 Hondurans are in a migrant caravan trying to reach the United States.

Mexico's government says migrants with proper documents can enter and those who don't either have to apply for refugee status or face deportation.

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12:05 a.m.

Many of the more than 2,000 Hondurans in a migrant caravan trying to wend its way to the United States are finding help from sympathetic Guatemalans even as local governments and U.S. President Donald Trump are trying to discourage them.

Many left spontaneously with little more than the clothes on their backs and what they could quickly throw into backpacks.

In neighboring Guatemala, they have been helped at every turn by residents who offered them food, water and rides in pickups or on flatbed of semi-trailer trucks.

More than 2 million Guatemalans live in the United States, and locals here saw the Hondurans streaming in front of their homes and businesses with dreams of making it to the U.S. as their Central American brothers and sisters.