CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A young undocumented immigrant says she feels hopeless without any immigration reform in sight. 

What You Need To Know

  • Congress didn’t pass immigration reform this year

  • The Department of Homeland Security has not processed DACA requests after courts ruled the policy unlawful

  • Grettel Gomez, a young undocumented immigrant, is waiting for approval of her DACA application

Grettel Gomez is back in Charlotte for the holidays. The 18-year-old has lived in the Queen City most of her life and considers it home.

“I don’t think a paper should define where I really feel I’m from,” Gomez said. 

Gomez was born in Mexico. Her family brought her here at age 1. She said initially they came on vacation but ended up staying for good.

“I’m undocumented but that doesn’t define anything about me,” Gomez said.

In 2019, she applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the policy that gives undocumented immigrants brought as children a temporary permit to work in the U.S. and enables them to obtain a temporary driver’s license and temporary relief from deportation. 

The Department of Homeland Security has not processed initial DACA requests for over a year and half, including hers. 

“Because of the Texas court ruling, they put a pause on my case,” Gomez said. 

In July 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas declared the 2012 DACA policy unlawful. In October, a federal appeals court affirmed this decision. 

“I can’t get that summer break or winter break job because I don’t have a social to have that opportunity,” Gomez said. 

Gomez is a freshman at Dominican University in Chicago, where she received a full-ride scholarship.

“I feel like I have more opportunities in Chicago than here in North Carolina,” Gomez said.

In early December, reports of an initial bipartisan framework that would give a pathway to citizenship for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally like her gave her hope.

“As every day passes and every year passes, there’s more anxiety that goes to that because it’s not hope anymore, this is my future,” Gomez said.

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She’s not giving up on her dream of working in the FBI one day. 

“I don’t have the legal status to do a lot of things, but even then, I still have that American dream rooted in me,” Gomez said.

According to CNN, North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis was involved in drafting the initial framework that would give a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who arrived to the U.S. as children and bolster border security.