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'How would I do it?' Younger supporters of migrants imagine if it was them instead

"To see a lot of these kids, their parents were undocumented and they were just thrown over," Elias Melchor said. "How is it going to be for them? It makes me imagine if I was in their position."

Elias Melchor and Daniel Carranza walked along a sidewalk in downtown McAllen on Wednesday night, getting soaked by a steady drizzle.

"Here, when people come with a cause, they come to do it no matter what," Melchor said. "It can be raining, it can be thundering, it can be snowing. People are not going to shy away from what they believe is right and what they're here to do."

Melchor and Carranza were there with several hundred other supporters at a vigil for the immigrant children who have been held in facilities across the Rio Grande Valley after being separated from their parents at the U.S. border. President Trump signed an executive order earlier Wednesday to stop the separations, but hundreds of children still remain away from their families.

At the vigil in McAllen, about five miles north of the border, supporters came with flags and signs and prayed in the rain. Then the crowd walked several blocks to a courthouse.

Supporters of immigrant children at a vigil in McAllen.

Melchor and Carranza – both only a couple years out of high school – were among the younger supporters in the crowd, only several years older than some of the teenagers who either arrived at the border on their own or were separated from their families.

"To see a lot of these kids, their parents were undocumented and they were just thrown over [the border]," Melchor said. "How is it going to be for them? It makes me imagine if I was in their position. How would I do it?"

Melchor and Carranza grew up in Edinburg, just north of McAllen. The two are members a group called Arise, which does volunteer work with Colonia communities along the border. Melcho and Carranza have also marched at rallies over DACA and the Texas Senate Bill 4, which banned sanctuary cities in Texas.

In their community, just miles from Mexico, immigration issues are commonplace. Many of their friends' parents, they said, are undocumented, living in fear of being deported.

"It's hard to see that," Melchor said, "and it's even worse for a kid."

Carranza's own parents are immigrants.

"I don't want to get in that kind of position. I feel sad for the kids...I want to listen and fight for what's right," Carranza said. "People who don't have the voice need someone to be voice for them."

While Trump had signed the executive order, the supporters at the vigil had plenty to pray about: Reunifying the separated children with their parents could take weeks, immigration attorneys and advocates said.

"I want to at least see the children get back with their parents," Carranza said. "It's bad for them to keep away a baby boy or a five-year-old or a six-year-old. I want them to be together in one place."

Carranza and Melchor held small sign during the vigil that read "World Peace" on one side and "Paz en el mundo," the Spanish translation, on the other.

"If there's more vigils, more walks, we'll more than likely be here," Melchor said. "Because it's who we are. It's how we were raised. It's how we are going to be for a while."

Daniel Carranza, who grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, at a vigil for immigrant children Wednesday night in McAllen.

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