A microphone was thrust into his hands, and for one bright moment, the words he yelled were chanted hundreds of times over, the sounds reverberating in the air and echoing from building walls in a way Eric Cruz Lopez will never forget.

“It felt powerful. I could hear all the voices, when we were doing chants. I could hear all the voices and as they chanted, and it repeated … We were hearing what we were feeling,” the 20-year-old from Bridgeport said.

Cruz Lopez, Laura Veira, a valedictorian of Norwalk who announced her immigration status at her graduation ceremony this spring, and Yenimar Cortes of New Haven are all undocumented immigrant students in Cleveland for the Republic National Convention. They’re there through the Connecticut for a Dream organization, which advocates for the rights of the undocumented.

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