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Child Border Crossings Way Down, Early Numbers Show

Image: Guatemalan migrant Gladys Chinoy, 14, waits along with more than 500 other migrants
In June 20, 2014 photo, Guatemalan migrant Gladys Chinoy, 14, waits with hundreds of migrants after a freight train carrying them north through Mexico derailed. On the last day of middle school, Chinoy memorized her mother's phone number in New York City and boarded a bus to Guatemala's northern border. Once across the river into Mexico, she joined a group of women and children traveling with a smuggler paid to take migrants to the U.S.Rebecca Blackwell / AP

The numbers of children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border on their own is down about 40 percent in the first month of the 2015 fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection, part of the Department of Homeland Security. From Oct.1 through October 31, a total 2,529 unaccompanied children had arrived on the southwest border.

During the same month in 2013, the number was at 4,181, the start of what would be a record year of more than 68,000 children arriving on the nation's southern border, triggering what President Barack Obama said was a humanitarian situation. The drop in family arrivals was smaller. In October, 2,163 families were apprehended at the border, compared to 2,414 thus at the same time last year.

Image: Guatemalan migrant Gladys Chinoy, 14, waits along with more than 500 other migrants
In June 20, 2014 photo, Guatemalan migrant Gladys Chinoy, 14, waits with hundreds of migrants after a freight train carrying them north through Mexico derailed. On the last day of middle school, Chinoy memorized her mother's phone number in New York City and boarded a bus to Guatemala's northern border. Once across the river into Mexico, she joined a group of women and children traveling with a smuggler paid to take migrants to the U.S.Rebecca Blackwell / AP

IN-DEPTH:

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Miami Non-Profits Work Overtime To Reunite Parents With Children

--Suzanne Gamboa