SAN ANTONIO — The U.S. Senate is expected to vote Thursday on two competing bills aimed at ending the ongoing partial government shutdown, which reached 33 days on Wednesday.
In one of those bills, President Donald Trump is offering temporary protection to 700,000 Dreamers in exchange for billions of dollars to fund his border wall.
Amparo Martinez, a freshman at San Antonio College, was just 6 years old when her family moved to the United States from Matamoros, Tamaulipas. She said her family filed the appropriate paperwork to start the process of becoming U.S. citizens, but officials told her it would be a 14-year wait for her and her brother.
"We still have two years left for our term to be done," Martinez said. "Then we can go to the immigration appointment and see if we can become a U.S. citizen or a resident."
The U.S. Supreme Court's inaction this week allows the DACA program to continue for another year, but it still doesn't guarantee the time she needs to become a citizen or graduate from college.
"I just really hope that we would still be able to have DACA," Martinez said. "Without it, many of us won't be able to go to school. Many of us will be hiding because we'd be scared. Now that everybody knows where we live and who are parents are, it's like what if they come after us and deport us to back to our country, which many of us have never known because we came to this country when we were very little?"
Martinez was accompanied by another Dreamer who wanted to remain anonymous for fear that she would be recognized, possibly putting her life and family at risk.
"I want other Dreamers to know that they are not alone. I want people to know what we are going through. We are scared," Martinez said. ""What makes us Dreamers is that we dream about so many opportunities for us in this country, and without DACA those dreams, those opportunities, won't be achieved."
All eyes will be on Capitol Hill Thursday as the Senate is expected to vote, but many anticipate both bills will fail to pass.