Even when just going on a two-hour road trip to Indiana, Julissa Martinez’s parents always had her family travel late at night.

“Their [driver’s license] is a different color and it shows that they’re undocumented, so they were scared of a cop pulling them over and seeing that they were illegal,” said Martinez, Div. 864, the President of DREAMer’s Club.

More than 800,000 people rely on one document to protect them. This temporary protection order called DACA, which stands for Deferred Actions for Childhood Arrivals, protects people who were brought to the United States illegally at a young age from being deported and enables them to obtain a driver’s license and a work permit.

There has been a lot of controversy in court involving DACA since the Trump Administration and the Department of Homeland Security decided to repeal the program in June.

This has been an ongoing power struggle and debate between the executive, legislative and judicial branches and if not resolved, may result in a Constitutional showdown in front of the Supreme Court, the New York Times stated.

Those who relied on DACA had at least 150 days before their permit expired. Since Trump repealed DACA, the last renewal date was Oct. 5.

According to the New York Times, dozens of young immigrants sent their DACA renewal forms many weeks prior to the deadline of Oct. 5. However, their paperwork was delayed in the mail, resulting in their renewal forms being denied because they were “late.”

This caused suspicion, especially when the mail was circling Chicago in a “mysterious holding pattern,” and then the tracking of the paperwork disappeared until Oct. 4 where it was once again “on its way,” according to the same article.

This put many people into uncomfortable and risky positions when looking into their future as undocumented U.S. citizens.

Martinez believes the majority of young people affected by DACA, known as DREAMer’s, are students, workers and productive members of society.

“My neighbors, they are actually taking care of this one little boy: he’s Puerto Rican,” Martinez said.

She said that the boy’s house is flooded so came to study here because there are no schools for him to pass his grade level. He’s ten, only speaks Spanish and misses his mom who still lives in Puerto Rico.

Martinez questions Trump’s definition of what it means to be “American.”

As the President of DREAMer’s Club at such a large school like Lane, she believes that raising awareness of undocumented students is important and could make a positive impact on those in need of support.

She said that the DREAMer’s Club is planning on raising over $1,000. The money is to be used for a contest where undocumented students can be nominated by their teachers or friends. The winner will win a “mini scholarship.”

Around Halloween, the club made sugar skulls that were sold out within a few hours. Currently the club is working on getting their design stickers approved that they want to sell.

Martinez said that the money the club raises could go towards helping students like a senior last year who was part of the DREAMer’s Club and couldn’t renew her DACA.

When it came to applying to colleges, being undocumented was a difficult barrier for her since FAFSA, federal student aid, does not accept applications from undocumented students.

“Because a lot of colleges don’t allow students to go in without a social [security number] or even if they do, she couldn’t apply for scholarships or FAFSA, so she didn’t know what to do,” Martinez said.

Jorge Ramirez, Div. 870, is an undocumented student. The controversy surrounding DACA has affected his view of America.

“It makes me kind of annoyed and agitated, because I still can’t believe that there are people opposed to DACA, because the only thing it helps us with is getting jobs and our license,” Ramirez said. “It doesn’t give us financial aid or anything. So we aren’t preventing them or stealing what other Americans have.”

Ramirez was eight months old when he arrived in the U.S. from San Luis Potosí, México.

“I have more opportunities here compared to Mexico,” he said. “I think my life in Mexico would be more typical. I wouldn’t be as ambitious, because the whole ‘American Dream’ thing. I feel like here I’m more ambitious to become something greater than I would in Mexico. I love that.”

A bipartisan bill called the DREAM Act was introduced in 2001 that would provide a direct path to American citizenship for previous DACA recipients and illegal immigrants.

The Senate version of the Dream Act was proposed in July 2017 would allow former, current, and future undocumented high-school GED receivers and graduates a three-step pathway to American citizenship to, “U.S. citizenship through college, work, or the armed services,” according to the American Immigration Council.

Leading Republicans discussed their future outlook on DACA, proposing that protection for young illegal immigrants must be coupled with “bolstered border security” and “more restrictions on legal immigration,” according to the New York Times.

Selene Bustamante, Div. 875, is a member of the DREAMer’s Club and previously used DACA for protection, but was not able to renew hers before the deadline. She has hope when looking at future generations of immigrants and how they will be affected by upcoming executive and judicial decisions made in court.

“Right now, I really have trust in this country,” Bustamante said. “I don’t feel like things are going to stay this way or become worse. I have faith in our country.”