daca yes so doc is basically kind of like a work authorization given to students who aren't citizens or residents of this country and so basically the guidelines for daca are that you need to have come here at a certain age before a seven year and you need to kind of like send in an application and pay about five hundred dollars and send in kind of an extensive background check and just like a lot of forms to prove that you're either looking to work or looking to pursue an education and once you send that and they give you kind of a card that allows you to work they give you a social security number and they used to have it about sprawl which would let you leave the country for travel purposes regarding education or work so what does dr stand for it's deferred action for childhood arrivals and it's kind of like a way to help like immigrants who came out of a young age be able to like you a lot of things i know a lot of dreamers are already in the workforce doing different things whether it's like acting or cooking or just like a very wide range of people just pursuing kind of like what they want to do in life and pursuing different careers so parents come to this country yes so i came from mexico with my parents when i was about three years old so i've been here for like sixteen years now so what's one of the most memorable memorable moments of this entire experience like something that really sticks out good or bad from having dhaka i think i think one of the most memorable things was being able to the having the opportunity to actually work because for a long time i didn't know how that was going to work because i didn't have a social security number and so once i received dhaka i was able to like apply to work a summer job before i started college and that really gave me the opportunity to save up money for like when i moved out here i'm so that was really really nice so you go to princeton university how do you like it just curious yeah you know i really enjoyed it i was definitely tough  it's kind of stressful and kind of a struggle sometimes and i'm from california so it's been like a pretty big transition and this is my second year so i barely like starting to get the hang of things but the people are really great and i think has a lot of different opportunities to just kind of like pursue any interest that you may have so i'm really enjoying it and what do you pursuing i wish i knew i'm not super a show yet i'm thinking of we don't have minors but we have to figure it so i want to do a teacher perhaps if we get in the latin american studies but in terms of a major i think right now i'm deciding between either sociology or history so what do you fall for with school probably too much so i'm part of a dream team i want to co director is and so we basically focus on immigration reform and kind of doing things on campus that will help other undocumented students or just like the general population to be more informed about like our status and how we can best be supportive for support and we also do work like outside of prison and the community just trying to get like resources out there and try to get in contact with the community and like up and prepare for emergencies and things like that and i'm also matriculate which is like and advising and i going to buy the program for two years but because of the executive decision made by trump september fifth people can no longer apply to it so after the announcement people who was about to expire before like march fifth they had the opportunity to reapply to get it renewed but anyone who who like had it expired after that and only new anymore so that way like they were in accepting any new applications and like they were in accepting any new renewals after that so it was just kind of like a way to ease that out and that we like as it starts expiring and people can't renew it eventually there'll be like no more people doc so what do you think it's a major misconception about immigrants in america  and i definitely do not think it's true and i also like sometimes when people think of immigrants are like oh there's good immigrants in there bad there's that immigrant so there's like immigrants who go to school and then other immigrants who are just likely easier like aren't really looking to to do anything  but i definitely don't think that's true because immigrants come here for a very wide variety of reasons sometimes there's like no an economic opportunities in the country sometimes they're fleeing from like political issues or just like they're in danger  and a lot of other reasons and i think people come here and they're really just looking to work hard and they do what they can can can to contribute to the country and also just like improve their own lifestyles and like it better for their families so why did your family  yeah so i think it was kind of like some of those reasons there weren't a lot of economic opportunities and my dad didn't think that would have like as many opportunities to drive and just kind of like get an education have a good career and so he decided to move be here to like look for a better job like a better way to provide for us and also because he thought that if we were raised here and we were would have more opportunities like go to college and do things like that because it's not always as easy to do and there's not as many opportunities to do that there were you nervous leaving mexico i was really little sidebar remember much of it my parents say that i actually didn't really want to leave that i was like oh no this one has been my grandparents are here and  change your life affected how people treat you i think so because i think before dhaka it was a lot harder to talk about being undocumented because of like those stereotypes and those kind of like misconceptions and once doc i came out because this became like a part of i feel like a good immigrant and like people who are doctor dissidents or things like that got a little bit easier to be open about my status because i didn't feel like as judged and that's one of the ways where there are any negative experiences with doc i think personally i fortunately have had to face a lot of that i've been surrounded by various a growing support of net network both at home and on campus and i know there are there are other people that have had no negative experiences either i protest of people of other people times and i'm like that they don't belong here and things like that but personally i have it and it's so obviously you got involved in spreading the message so what are some things that you do to help spread yeah i think a lot of the work for that comes from the work that i do with dream team and as a result it also started being about social media and i actually hadn't been completely open about my side is like my friends knew about it the group around me knew about it but i had never publicly posted it and that was something that happened this summer as the conversation around dhaka started getting really intense and i felt like it was necessary for me to speak up so i was a first time that i posted it i posted on instagram and i received a lot of positive feedback after that which was really nice and i think that's also what led to me feeling more comfortable doing the interview for like the magazine because since i had already started speaking about it i felt like i was done trying to hide it and things  about it and like if it was out there i might as well use it because i think it's really necessary for people to hear individual stories because i think a lot of times when people talk about dhaka if they're not personally impacted by it and they don't personally know anyone it's really easy to think about it as just like abstract erotica policy when really like these are the lives of people that are getting impacted so i think it's really important for people to see those faces and to like your those stories and know how these people are getting affected how how much of a wide variety we have in my terms of things that we're personally i like personal backgrounds and stories and so they contacted one of the co presidents for the at the an organization on campus and they said they were looking for an argument at students in college who would be willing to share their stories so he contacted me and he was like if you're interested let me know so i told him that i would do it and that's when i he caught it like you put us in contact and they told me like oh you need to come in this day so we can interview you and to let the photo shoot sometimes you put it like oh you should just do things the right way like apply to get your citizenship but you can't just like them in your paperwork and i asked for citizenship there has to be some kind of like law and we see that's passed and there's nothing in place right now so there's not opinion what they think is a most important thing that i think the most important thing i think it's i guess is what amongst one of the things is that it's allowed us to have a voice and elect speak up about these problems i was is not perfect like there's a lot of people who are left out of pocket that weren't able to receive its benefits but i think you know it's been a great starting point for us to really like get the conversation what not started because this conversation has has been happening but really i push for more and really like people see the stories and see the people that are impacted by it so how do you think that we could spread the message and spread the ideas of what are some things that we can do i think is important to show your support it's important also like sometimes people are just not aware they're they're kind of ignorant about about the issue so i think it's important that when you hear somebody talking about in a certain way or like stereotyping and generalizing like immigrants and a certain way like being able to speak up and and like clarify that that's that's not how it is and i think it's also important to get educated about the kind of bills that are in place that are getting pushed for right now like one of the major things that we're fighting for is the clean dream act but there's a couple other bills on the table and i also feel like i need to learn more about this because i was we don't know all  details but i think it's like important to do research and really know what's on the table and how these are different and which is the best option for immigrants so i know this is a stereotype but like often people think immigrant her like a little something i guess i feel like a lot of the people that i know come from mexico and from mexico a lot of times are happens like people get their peace and they come over  and then eventually like if they get a job or something like that they just end up not going back because if they go back and they can't come back and i keep working from other adult like i guess a specific stories but i know people yeah people definitely come some people c in some people from cars some people do fly in you know i guess it just kind depends so to what extent has this affected you like do you see the effect of being an immigrant on a daily basis or is it something that you only have to deal with every once in a while i think it's definitely something that impacts me on a daily basis is something that's kind of on the back of my mind and i'm always aware of and because it just kind of seeps into many other areas state because i didn't have like social security number like a normal form of id or anything like that and it was something i was aware of during high school because i knew that it was going to be hard if you're going to college because some colleges would look at me like i was an international student even though i had like gone to school in the united states for my whole life and then i know some schools wouldn't give me a national aid because i was considered an international student and so i think that was something that i was aware of constantly so i pushed me to work harder to really increase my chances of any and to college somewhere and i think even now it's something that i'm councilor of especially now that they've removed aka because once my doc expires i don't know if i'm going to continue working like work studies part of my financial aid package something that i need to be able to do and i don't know how that's going to work out so i was like being worried about the family members only people back in my community and i can happen with them and i think crease dhaka i think i mean i think for there to be changed secondly a lot of grass what works and like community organizations gathering like the people gathering and really pushing for these changes so i do think there's power in the people in terms of like state versus federal i think there are some there are definitely some things that can be done because i know california has kind of like passing bills that make it easier for undocumented people and i committed students  to like go to college and things like that but even things like getting declare like a sanctuary city or sentry state can make it kind of clash with again there's nothing happening at the federal level and with the federal government not wanting to like it taking away from the funds that benefit the state and things like that so there can be a clash there which can make it more complicated you have a lot of f up i think there's not as many i also like it's hard to know sometimes because not everyone is super open about their status but i do do have like a pretty solid support system what's i wish they knew and the how stressful it can be because every day like i said like sometimes when people aren't directly impacted by it they don't realize the full extent of it  it like you can just have such a strong impact on families like mix that is families are like step families where to me the parents don't have to consider ship but the children are born here so they do and just like it makes things really complicated and it's just such a big concern yeah and so it can this be really stress when i just feel like people should too be able to empathize with that and like family such an important thing and they will should be able to like it with their family and enjoy their family and not have to a less american that's pretty sad and it's unfortunate that it's like always in the back of your mind so it's an important issue that we need to bring to light and do you think that in general more awareness would help the issue like there's more awareness more people knew about it and perhaps it would be more in the government's mind and they do something to help improve it yeah i think more awareness can always can always be a good thing because there's some people that are directly against it but then there's also some people that just don't know or don't realize like some people that think that dach means that you get your citizenship which is not like doctors not a road to citizenship or people who think that these laws like it takes away from like because it makes it easier for undocumented immigrant students to go to college it takes away from funds for other students and things like that and that's also not the case because even with dhaka we don't get federal funds and this is like things that people i think have a very negative conception idea of and it that's not even necessarily how it works and maybe if they knew more about it or they understood it better it wouldn't be so against it so how often do you speak about the process i  made things more complicated because i feel like it's like increased hate speech and yeah i think having a president who's so open about discrimination about toward certain groups of people in a sense can make other people feel more comfortable saying things like that and just kind of like i think discrimination like those kinds of prejudices prejudices or already present but that really brings them up and they are like really i like them and i think that's not what we need right now i think it's really important for people to start coming together more and really like it was to bridge those differences and i don't think that's people's program similar to dr yes i think the biggest question right now is for the clean dream act which is at the federal level and so i think new jersey and like as a majority has has jersey as a whole because so much of my time is spent like in the prince of bubble so i don't really get to see as much of it play out just like outside of campus but i do know it is a bit different because california has so passed like a lot of bills and support had about the same exposure to like my mexican connections people who were born here because i haven't been able to go back in many years so i like obviously a lot of my sense of heritage and and like my connection to to my background comes from my parents like them we visiting and there's a very strong pride in that but i don't think it's necessarily stronger than people who are born here and have also like a mexican here it so do you speak both spanish and english think so it's actually if i venture to go into teaching i think i'd be court to go into a community that speaks both languages and be able to communicate to students and so you're thinking about going into teaching i think at some point yeah probably not right out of college but eventually i organization and so we also focus like reaching out to the community doing like mentoring programs or tutoring programs for other like high school students and things like that so do you hope that you'll be able to help somebody else  know sharing your story i hope so yeah i know it can be a scary time and so i hope that by my sharing a story even for people that don't feel comfortable or aren't in a place where they can share their own sorry a at least restrengthen annoying that they're not alone i see you as kind of like an inspiration to them and maybe in a different situation and i'm really happy that you decided to share your story and i think it's going to be a good support system for many people so  nteresting i found a very interesting and i'm going to use that term prints and bubble after today who are christian bible that's my new thing and i totally see what you mean well anyway thank you so much for coming it was a great interview and if there's anything else you'd like to say to our viewers you can it's thank you for having me and i hope this is educational in some way and and that it helped people who we needed to get something like that