Most high school students are concerned about their prom outfit or worried about receiving acceptance letters from universities.
That is not the case for Nicole Aldana and Viviana Mateo, two 17-year-old students who are recipients of the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and part of the class of 2018.
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“As a senior I should be worrying about” the prom, Mateo said. “Like what dress am I going to wear (or) what am I going to do for my graduation party?”
Instead, she worries that she could be forced to leave the country because of the Trump Administration’s mandate to end the DACA program.
Mateo arrived in the United States from Michoacán in Mexico when she was only 3 years old.
She and her young mother made the treacherous trek to the U.S. in search of economic stability and to find safety from the organized crime syndicates that operate in Mexico.
Aldana escaped the war-torn country of El Salvador with her entire family and relocated to the U.S. thanks to the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) program that granted asylum to those affected by natural disasters in Central America.
Both teenagers consider the “land of the free” to be their only home but “feeling free” is something they don’t feel often.
“I have to like sell my innocence because I came when I was one,” said Aldana. “This is the only country that I know, the only state I know, I’ve grown up here my whole life so for people to say I can’t get in-state tuition when I’ve lived here my whole life is very confusing to me.”
According to the Pew Research Center, the United States has 690,000 unauthorized immigrants who benefit from DACA.
North Carolina is home to 27,000 recipients making it the seventh state with the most temporary work permits; a benefit of DACA.
Raul Pinto, an associate attorney with the North Carolina Justice Center in Raleigh, works with undocumented residents about the options they have when seeking permanent immigration status.
"Folks have to really think about their own situation, Pinto said. “I think that they should be thinking about talking to immigration attorneys so that they can see the circumstances that they have in front of them.”
DACA recipients in the Triangle and around the nation are left in the dark and with much uncertainty about their fates, but some are hopeful that things will get better.
Mateo and Aldana participated in the Death of Dreams Rally that took place on March 6th in downtown Raleigh and continue to advocate that federal lawmakers approve permanent changes to the DREAM Act.
“A lot of people think that ‘Oh the dreamers, the illegals’ they are so far away, not close to home,’ said Mateo. “But those are your neighbors, those are your friends whether they are open about it or not, and that is the thing that pushes me to do this because a lot of people are so scared.”