Immigrants getting younger

Kelder Gomez dropped out of school in the sixth grade to work in the fields with his father. He made about $2 a day.

At age 14, he left his home in the Guatemalan town of San Marcos with a goal of reaching Washington, D.C.

But his dreams were cut short when he was caught by Mexican authorities in Tuxtla, Gutierrez, a town not far from the Guatemala border. He had only traveled the distance from Chattanooga to Nashville.

In part because children want to reunite with their parents, the age of those migrating to the United States has dropped. Some are as young as 14 and 15. Today, every child knows about immigration, it has even become part of their school curriculum, said Mauro Guzmán, a Guatemalan lawmaker who leads the country's Immigrants Commission.

Children who are trying to immigrate illegally are deported from Mexico and taken to Casas Nuestras Raíces in Quetzaltenango, a town west of Guatemala City where the parents can pick them up.

Every week, 30 children caught trying to cross the border arrive at a center, according to the United Nations Children's Fund.

Kelder's father, Patrocinio Gomez, 49, woke up at 5 a.m. one morning in April, walked for two hours, then took a five-hour bus ride to Quetzaltenango to pick up his son.

The teen will try to cross again, maybe in a month or two, his father said. "This kid will have to go."

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