 Albuquerque Tribune, NM
Dunia Barajona was 14 when she arrived in the United States illegally without her parents, hoping to find work and go to school.
She crossed the nation's Southwest border at night with a group that was captured by the U.S. Border Patrol, and she spent the next 10 months in an El Paso group home wondering whether she'd see her family in Honduras again.
"It's so depressing there," said Barajona, now 19. "You get all confused. Sometimes you're happy and sometimes you're tired. . . . You change."
Barajona represents a growing number of Central American children between the ages of 10 and 17 caught sneaking into the United States with smugglers who were hired by their parents. In most cases, they either are sent to find jobs and send money home, or are trying rejoin their parents who already made the journey.
More...
|
