Faces of Dreamers

Gloria, Veronica, and Berenice

It feels like we have reverted to day one where you have DACA, but at any moment, the government can take that away from you, treat you like you’re undocumented and [make you] go back to your place.

Gloria, Veronica, and Berenice

Gloria, a freshman at the College of Southern Nevada (CSN), worries what will happen if she is unable to renew her DACA status.

Veronica, president of CSN’s Generation Dreamers student support club, said that, “One struggle that I faced growing up is always hiding who I was.”

And Berenice, who arrived in the United States at two years old and is now studying communications in her last year at CSN, says her family pushed her to pursue the education and career she wanted, even though she feared her citizenship status would prevent her from achieving her goals.

The three CSN students recently participated in, “Day Dreaming: The Untold Stories of DACA Students,” an event hosted by College of Southern Nevada Student Life office and the student group Generation Dreamers, reports The Nevada Independent.

“Knowing that DACA is no longer taking applicants and that it can be taken in the blink of an eye, makes it so scary,” said Veronica. “It feels like we have reverted to day one where you have DACA, but at any moment, the government can take that away from you, treat you like you’re undocumented and [make you] go back to your place.”

The story notes that, since the Trump administration announced in 2017 that it was ending DACA, the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) said it would continue to provide Dreamers access to college and support them. That includes joining an amicus brief supporting University of California regents who are suing the Department of Homeland Security over its cancellation of the program, arguing that DACA students enrich college campuses and ending the program would adversely affect schools around the country.