TAYLOR, Texas — The humanitarian crisis at the border is prompting outrage from both sides of the political spectrum, while the federal government continues to fumble its response to the large number of unaccompanied minors at the border. That's the reason a coalition of migrant women rallied at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor last week to send a message to the Biden Administration to begin the hard work of reuniting families.

One of those women is Sonia Almendarez. She’s originally from Honduras. She arrived in the U.S. years ago with her youngest son, but her two daughters stayed behind until earlier this year.

“Right now I have a daughter who’s being detained by immigration, she’s ten. And, it’s very difficult,” she said.

She said her eldest was turned away at the border and is now living in various women's shelters in Mexico, and her youngest is living in a detention cell somewhere along the Rio Grande. Almendarez said her decision to uproot her life was based on the death of her oldest son who she says was targeted by members of the MS-13.

“First he was kidnapped, then eight months later he was killed,” she said.

From Almendarez’s deepest moments of grief grew a resolve to protect herself and her three other children. Staying in Honduras wasn't an option.

“I don’t know. They could’ve killed me, I don’t know,” she said.

Right now her family is splintered.

“I think people who don’t know pain like that, don’t understand,” she said. 

According to Almendarez, immigration critics who bemoan the nature of legality and the process that lead desperate immigrants to arrive at the border forget one thing — to judge them kindly and offer basic dignity.

“Immigrants are here to do better, not worse,” she said.

She said she marches for her son, shouts for her daughters, and prays for the day they’ll all be reunited once more.