One Dreamer Applies For Deferred Action With Job Offers In Hand

By Griselda Nevárez, Voxxi

Gabriela Perez said she qualifies for President Barack Obama administration’s deferred action program and has school records, awards, recommendation letters from teachers and her bachelor’s degree to prove it.

Perez has spent the last few weeks gathering documents that demonstrate she has been living in the United States since she was 7 years old. Now, this 24-year-old undocumented young immigrant finally has her deferred action application complete and plans to file it within the next few days.

It really is the first day of the rest of her life.

“I feel so relieved,” Perez told VOXXI about completing her application. “I feel like some weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.”

For the last 17 years, she has been calling Phoenix, Arizona, her home. She went through elementary school, junior high, and high school before attending Arizona State University where she was charged out-of-state tuition. A state law in Arizona requires those who cannot prove a legal status to pay out-of-state tuition and bans them from receiving federal or state financial aid.

With the help of merit-based and private scholarships, Perez was able to pay the out-of-state tuition cost to attend ASU and graduate from there in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in speech and hearing.

Like hundreds of undocumented youth across the nation, she hasn’t been able to use her degree because her status forbids her from working. But if she’s granted deferred action, she’ll receive work authorization.

Though she hasn’t filed her application yet, Perez already has four job offers and is still deciding what she’ll do.

“I have a lot of options,” she said. “I could work at a hospital, at a school or go back to college to get a nursing degree.”

Perez said she has been working hard throughout the years and has not let her legal status stop her from achieving her goals.

Dr. Allan Cameron, a high school teacher in Arizona, said he’s met plenty of dreamers like Perez. For many years, he’s seen dozens of them go through the Carl Hayden High School’s Falcon Robotics Team, an extra curricular high school STEM (science, technology,engineering, and mathematics) program that he co-advises.

“These are some amazing kids, and I’m happy to see that they’re finally going to have a chance to show the nation what they’re capable of,” he said.

This article was first published in Voxxi.

Griselda Nevárez is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington D.C.