They did not get handouts. They had to work. And they could not come in if they had certain medical conditions or social beliefs such as anarchists, people with epilepsy, beggars, and importers of prostitutes.
It has nothing to do with this is exactly what happened in April.
The caravan gets smaller and smaller as it moves north and then the vast majority of thempresent themselves at the border for asylum.
This time they know that they have to present themselves at a border checkpoint and not have to go through the President changing the rules on the fly.