In the sterile office of an immigration attorney, 15-year-old Annie Aviles-Zamora tuned out the lawyer’s words as she felt her world crumble.
Aviles-Zamora and her mother met with the attorney in 2017 to begin the teen’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, application process. Aviles-Zamora craved a driver’s license and a job like her friends, but being brought from Mexico to the United States when she was 4 years old precluded her from the same opportunities.
When Aviles-Zamora’s mother learned about DACA, she thought it could guarantee her hardworking daughter a normal life. The Obama-era program provided two years of renewable protection from deportation and work permits to people who were brought to this country without documentation as children.
The mother-daughter duo entered the office buoyant, preparing for celebration. But they were too late, the attorney informed them.
“I was gutted,” said Aviles-Zamora, now a 21-year-old student at Metropolitan State University of Denver who has since found an alternative to DACA that offers her comparable benefits.
President Donald Trump halted new applications for DACA protections in 2017, allowing only existing recipients to renew. Had they come in a few months ago, the lawyer told them, they wouldn’t have missed the deadline — but now Aviles-Zamora was locked out.
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