The US Department of Justice has charged 11 people, said to be members of the Central American migrant caravan, with allegedly entering America illegally.

In a journey lasting a month, around 200 migrants arrived at San Ysidro port of entry on the US-Mexico border on Sunday, local time, to claim asylum.

CNN reports 10 members of the caravan face a misdemeanor charge of alleged illegal entry, while another faces a felony charge after allegedly entering the US after previously being deported.

According to CNN, those charged were seen on the US side of the border.

The asylum seekers were not allowed to turn themselves in to US border inspectors for a second straight day.

US Customs and Border Protection said a San Diego border crossing facility had reached capacity.

Mexican authorities allowed about 50 people to cross a long bridge leading to the US inspection facility, but US authorities told them to wait.

Customs and Border Protection says it will resume processing when it has more space and resources.

Irineo Mujica of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, the group organising the caravan, says the US refusal is a “farce” aimed at avoiding having to deal with the Central American asylum seekers.

About 50 asylum seekers camped overnight on a sidewalk outside the Mexican entrance to the border crossing.

President Donald Trump vowed last week to “stop” the caravan while Cabinet members said they would deliver a swift response. The asylum seekers held firm, setting up a possible showdown.

In an anticlimactic twist, about 50 asylum seekers were allowed pass a gate controlled by Mexican officials to walk across a long bridge but were stopped at the entrance to the US inspection facility at the other end.

They were allowed to wait outside the building, technically on Mexican soil, without word of when US officials would let them claim asylum.

Another 50 or so camped on blankets and backpacks in Tijuana outside the Mexican side of the crossing, prohibited from even getting close to the US inspection building.

The asylum-seekers began the day with anticipation, travelling in red-and-white school buses under police escort to a beachfront rally in Tijuana, where a steel fence juts out into the Pacific Ocean. They sang the Honduran national anthem, and supporters on the San Diego side of the fence waved a Honduran flag.

After a final briefing from lawyers and minutes before they were to begin a short walk to the border crossing, US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan announced that the San Ysidro border crossing, the nation’s busiest, had “reached capacity” for people without legal documents and that asylum-seekers may need to wait in Mexico temporarily.

Trump has commented frequently on the caravan since it started in Mexico on March 25 near the Guatemala border and headed north to Tijuana. His broadsides came as his administration vowed to end what officials call “legal loopholes” and “catch-and-release” policies that allow people requesting asylum to be released from custody into the US while their claims make their way through the courts, which can take years.

Attorney-General Jeff Sessions has called the caravan “a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said asylum claims will be resolved “efficiently and expeditiously” and warned that anyone making false claims could be prosecuted.

The administration’s stern warnings left organisers in disbelief that border inspectors were not ready for them.

“They have been well aware that a caravan is going to arrive at the border,” Nicole Ramos, an lawyer working on behalf of caravan members, said at a news conference.

“The failure to prepare and failure to get sufficient agents and resources is not the fault of the most vulnerable among us. We can build a base in Iraq in under a week. We can’t process 200 refugees. I don’t believe it.”

The caravan that left the Guatemala-Mexico border in late March grew over the last month to more than 1,000 migrants who found safety travelling in numbers.