Stories
Without DACA, U.S. Risks Losing Country’s Educated Talent
When Ben A. was a high-school senior in north Texas, he was class valedictorian, president of the school’s National Honor Society chapter, and had a full scholarship to Harvard University. But his girlfriend’s father still disapproved of their relationship because he was an undocumented immigrant. “It’s one of the most… Read More
After Leaving Extreme Poverty in Mexico, Student Dreams of American Citizenship
Had she not come to America, Monica Alcaraz would have faced a life of extreme poverty in Guanajuato, Mexico. The youngest of 16 children, she often didn’t have enough to eat. So when her older sister married a U.S. citizen and moved to Texas in 1986, Alcaraz—then four years old… Read More
Indian Native Finds Success in America, Gives Back to Adoptive Home of Corpus Christi
Indian native Kamlesh Bhikha grew up in an entrepreneurial family. His grandfather was a sugarcane and cotton farmer and his father manufactured diamonds, selling the gems he’d fashioned from rough stones. Bhikha also aspired to be his own boss. “The harder you work, the more you reap,’” he says. “And… Read More
Texas Social Worker Sees Valuable Talent Stifled Without DACA
As a social worker, Bere Hernandez helps people in her community reach their full potential. As an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, she knows how many obstacles the foreign-born can encounter. “Immigrants are often seen as individuals who need to be rescued,” says Hernandez, who received her master’s degree in social… Read More
U.S. Could Deport the STEM Grads it Desperately Needs
American companies need young people like Cesar Guzman, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Texas at El Paso. U.S. employers are already struggling to find qualified workers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields; in 2016, there were more than 12 STEM jobs posted… Read More
Dallas-Based Artist and Immigrant Found Success Thanks to Her Parent’s Drive for a Better Life
As one of six children in her family in Taipei, Taiwan, Jin-Ya Huang grew up watching her parents struggle to overcome poverty. Her mother scraped together money by cooking and sewing, and her father worked and lived at a distant cement factory, where he was a mechanical engineer. When he lost his job, money… Read More
Dallas DACA-Recipient Works to Improve His Community
Alex Medrano was 11 years old when his mother brought him to the United States from Mexico in search of a better education, an opportunity Medrano fast took advantage of. By his sophomore year of high school, he was taking college classes, and by graduation he had 62 hours of… Read More
On News of DACA’s End, College Dreamer Turns College Drop-Out
In September 2017, Cristian Olivares was ready to start his freshman year of college. He had registered for business classes and signed a lease for an apartment. Then he learned that the Trump administration was ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA), the 2012 policy that temporarily defers deportation and… Read More
Dreamer Forced to Shelve Plan to Use IT Skills to ‘Protect Our Troops’
Axel did not know he was an undocumented immigrant until he started high school. His parents had brought him and his brother to the United States from Guatemala when he was 6 years old, and, as he got older, the Sioux Falls resident assumed he had the same rights as… Read More
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