A group of 1,750 migrant caravan members who reached Tijuana on Thursday may face a four-month wait for processing asylum claims, said a top deputy official, Francisco Reuda, in Baja California, Mexico, according to The Associated Press.

With more than 3,000 people on the list of asylum-seeker hopefuls waiting in Tijuana and only 100 claims processed daily by border inspectors, it could take months at this point, the outlet explained.

Close

It added that the Mexican city’s resources for feeding and sheltering the group is taxed to its limit.

The sad situation in Tijuana promises to worsen as more caravan members continue to stream into the city — one so close to the United States that people there can see San Diego’s skyline.

Though some outlets have cast the group as comprising many women and children, other outlets are strongly challenging that notion as patently false.

On Thursday night, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, flatly accused a Univision host of peddling propaganda.

Carlson challenged the composition of the caravan, which he said was mainly men, not women and children. He also challenged their mode of transportation and arrival time frame — which he said was much quicker and often by way of cars and other vehicular transport, rather than walking. And he challenged their reason for coming here, which he said is mostly for economic relief rather than legally defined asylum, as the Daily Caller reported.

As several other caravan groups make their way northward, those who have already arrived were taken by “surprise” and the “hostility from residents of Playas de Tijuana,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

Fighting between locals and those in the caravans broke out Wednesday in the upscale district, where some locals were protesting the migrants’ presence, the outlet also reported.

Meanwhile, buses filled with Central American migrants continue to arrive in the city where shelters are already at double their capacity, the AP and the Times reported.

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

“This was supposed to be the pot at the end of the rainbow,” said Fox News’ William La Jeunesse, who was reporting live from an extremely crowded shelter in Tijuana, a YMCA of sorts that had been converted temporarily to a shelter, where about 1,000 migrants were staying.

“But as many migrants in the caravan found out, it isn’t.”

“We’re expecting 5,000. Right now, there are 1000 people here,” said La Jeunesse.

“There is one bathroom.”

“The options are … to go home, wait in line, stay here in Mexico and work here, hire a coyote, or try to cross illegally.”

And check out this video:

Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and regular contributor to LifeZette.