NEDERLAND, Texas — The future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program remains in limbo after a U.S. district judge in Houston declared it unlawful.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen agreed with Texas and eight other states suing to stop the program. The judge’s ruling was ultimately expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, sending the program’s fate before the high court for a third time.
With no timeline in sight, many "dreamers" are feeling uncertain about their future.
Viviana Biehle, of Nederland, was brought to Port Arthur by her parents from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico in 1998, when she was just three years old.
In 2012 at 17 years old, Biehle wanted to get a job. That same year, the Obama Administration established DACA.
But, she had trouble signing up.
"They were like you don't have a future you might as well go and give up. That's what they told me," she said.
Biehle reached out to catholic charities for help.
"And I opened it and there it was, it was my DACA card and I just cried. I was just so happy," she said.
Since then, she's graduated college and for the last seven years, she's been working for Acadian Ambulance Service.
In 2022, Biehle officially became a paramedic and a permanent resident of the U.S.
"It just made me so happy. Like, it just finally like all my worries that we're there just kind of disappeared. And knowing that I had legal status and i didn't just have to worry about it being taken away from me at you know, a quick second," she said.
Immigration Attorney Kristy Wendler helped Biehle navigate the complicated U.S. immigration system.
"Many of them don't even discover that they're not born here, or not documented here until they're older, until they have to apply for that first job," Wendler said.
Judge Hanen’s order extended the current injunction that had been in place against DACA, which barred the government from approving any new applications, but left the program intact for existing recipients during the ongoing legal review.
Because of this, Wendler is advising her clients to get their green card.
"Go ahead and pursue that because of the uncertainty with the DACA program. It appears we're on a pathway where it may be rescinded permanently," she said.
This case is expected to go to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and finally to the U.S. Supreme Court.