DACA in Illinois

To honor DACA’s fifth anniversary, the ACLU of Illinois is launching a storytelling project featuring DACA recipients. We hope that by telling these stories, we give agency to more people to tell their own story and challenge the harmful rhetoric coming from the Trump Administration.

My roots are in Chicago. My whole life is here, my family and husband are here. We just bought a house and we depend on my income to support my family. Just to know that my job, our house, our life here could all so easily be taken away from us is terrifying.

I can’t imagine getting into college without DACA. I can’t imagine doing half the things I did in high school without DACA. With it, I was able to travel with my mock trial team.

My name is Julio Cesar Reyes. Back home in Zacatecas, Estancia de Animas, Villa Gonzalez, Mexico; I lived in a small masonry home with very limited exposure to architecture and very few construction opportunities. In 2001, when I was 6 years old, my life changed completely. My mother, my three sibli