Faces of Dreamers: Karina Aguilar Guerrero, Princeton University

This is one in a series of posts on individual Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as young children, many of whom are under threat of deportation following the Trump administration’s decision last month to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA.

DACA recipient Karina Aguilar Guerrero, who is studying public policy and education at Princeton University (NJ), is one of five Dreamers on the cover of People en Español‘s November issue.

After years of uncertainty about her immigration status in the United States, Guerrero—who was born in Mexicali, Mexico—told the magazine she was finally able to breath when the DACA policy was put in place in 2012.

“[Being undocumented] pushed me to try harder to do my best in school, get involved, get into sports and I think that also definitely helped me when it came to applying to Princeton,” Guerrero said. “I knew there were going to be obstacles in the way when I wanted to go to school.”

“We deserve to feel safe and secure because we are humans and we need to be seen that way,” she added

Read the full profile and view a video of Guerrero by clicking here.