As politicians in Washington try and figure out what to do with the DACA program — Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals — across the country, DACA recipients are working on their own plans … trying to stay in the country if Congress doesn’t act in time.
Andrea De La Vega, 26, says she remembers when she first realized her immigration status could hold her back. In high school, she was the editor of the school newspaper, the lead attorney on the mock trial team. She was in the top 10 percent of her class, which all but guaranteed entry into the University of Texas Austin, one of her top schools, when she applied in 2009.
But Andrea was born in Mexico and found out that she didn’t have a Social Security number, so she couldn’t apply for student loans or scholarships.
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