Author: Laurie Arnston

Dreamer Nicolle Uria, a senior at Annandale High School in Fairfax Country, VA, plans to apply to college, major in journalism or business and one day head a media company, reports The Washington Post. But, the paper noted in a profile of her, “the DACA decision turned that future, once brimming with goals, into a waiting game stuffed with questions, ones only Congress can answer and make her wonder if she has a future here at all.”

Cristina Nunez, who was 2 years old when her family migrated to Illinois from Mexico, is a Dean’s List history major at Loyola University Chicago and plans to attend law school. Zarna Patel, a third-year student at Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine, was 3 years old when her family brought her to North Carolina from India. Jose Martinez taught himself English when his parents migrated to Southern California from Mexico. Today he dreams of becoming a structural engineer.

Harvard University (MA) student Jin Park remembers being told to always be mindful of his surroundings growing up in New York City, to keep quiet about being undocumented, and to avoid busy streets where he might encounter immigration agents. Park is one of four undocumented Harvard undergraduates who spoke to the Harvard Gazette in May, prior to the Trump administration’s decision in September to rescind DACA, about their challenges, concerns and hopes

DACA recipient Karina Aguilar Guerrero, who is studying public policy and education at Princeton University (NJ), is five Dreamers on the cover of People en Español‘s November issue. Born in Mexicali, Mexico, after years of uncertainty about her immigration status in the United States Guerrero told the magazine she was finally able to breath when the DACA policy was put in place in 2012.

Southern Oregon University student Linda Escot was brought to the United States at age 6 and dreams of becoming a pediatrician, but says the Trump administration’s decision to rescind DACA “was like a punch in the face.” Recent Southern Oregon graduate Ricardo Lujan, who worked his way through college, is now reconsidering his plans to go to law school.