Home State: Florida
Murilo first came to the U.S. from Brazil when he was three years old and he has been living continuously in Florida since he was eight–more than twenty years ago.
He is a DACA recipient and a proud graduate of Broward College and Florida Atlantic University, which he attended as a TheDream.US Scholar. Murilo is also an example of how Florida’s in-state tuition access policy–since repealed–not only benefited Dreamers, but the state as a whole. He recently completed medical school at NOVA Southeastern University and plans to focus on underserved communities, including immigrants. As he told WLRN NPR Florida in 2025, “When I see a patient [that’s] like an undocumented, 50-year-old construction worker, I feel like I’m working on my stepdad. Or, a mom that’s cleaning houses, I think I see my mom there.”
Assessing the national policy landscape, Murilo makes a compelling case for expanding Dreamers’ opportunities. As he told WLRN, “Everyone wants to make the immigration system more merit-based, right?” said Alves. “There’s no one more merit-based than these kids that grew up, in our schools, in the communities. They know no other home … [The] majority of undocumented Dreamers, we just want to better ourselves and our communities.”
Murilo will start his Internal Medicine residency at Broward Health Hospital this fall.
