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AFP
Sasabe
Migrants trying to sneak into the United States from the Mexican desert have to contend with border guards' drones overhead, poisonous snakes underfoot and human trafficking gangs at their backs.
But these challenges are nothing compared to their bigger fear: that someday soon, US President-elect Donald Trump will build a wall to keep them out altogether.
So before Trump takes office this Friday, they are racing against time, riding a freight train up to the border to look for a way across.
Mexican authorities are arresting thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of undocumented migrants each month, according to government figures. Governors of several northern states this week called for extra resources to deal with the surge.
Laura Ramirez, a local charity activist, has been serving more than 200 free lunches a day to migrants.
In the border town of Sasabe, marks in the rust on the border fence appear to show a spot where migrants climbed over, says Sergio Flores, leader of a government migrant task force.
The migrants pay about $1,000 each to so-called 'coyotes' - people traffickers - to bring them here from their native countries.
On arrival, some traffickers tell the migrants they must pay another $5,000 to get across the border.
