DACA recipients may soon see a turning point in the fight for immigration reform.
On Thursday, the White House released a plan detailing a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and DACA eligible people who never applied. In exchange, the White House wants billions of dollars for a southern border wall.
The new plan would eventually allow those eligible to become citizens via a ten to twelve year path that would include good moral character, work and education.
The plan would affect almost two million undocumented immigrants, including more than 3,000 Dreamers in Nebraska.
Yesica Lara is one of them.
Lara is a DACA recipient and with it, has been able to attend the College of St. Mary's to study immigration.
Lara is one of the many local Nebraskan Dreamers actively working to appeal to the Trump administration to not eliminate DACA and get U.S. citizenship. Just two weeks ago, she traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby for Dreamers and met with congressman Don Bacon and Senator Ben Sasse.
"He [Trump] keeps going back and forth so I don't know if he's trying to confuse all of us DACA kids and then by the deadline comes, he'll be like, you know what, no more DACA no more nothing," said Lara.
Lara wants to legally become an American but says not with a plan that includes the wall.
"Those are two things that just don't need to be combined," said Lara. "It goes back to racism. The wall was a negative thing he ran on during the campaign. If he loved Dreamers like he says he does, he wouldn't be creating all this racism. Even though we're DACA students, we still have some type of legal status and we still have to go through the racism and I don't think he cares."
Lawmakers say they're aiming for a deal that includes DACA and border security. That will attract 70 votes in the Senate and win the president's support.
