“When I found out the SIJS Deferred Action policy had been terminated, I felt a deep sense of fear and helplessness. It felt like the ground I had finally started to stand on was being taken away from under me. After everything I’ve been through—working multiple jobs, pursuing my education, fighting for my own emancipation—I finally had a glimpse of stability and peace. Hearing that the policy was gone made it feel like all of that could disappear in an instant.

I felt fear, frustration, and overwhelming anxiety. Fear of having to go back to living in the shadows, of once again hiding parts of myself and worrying every day about what might happen to me. Frustration because I’ve done everything I was told to do—studied, worked hard, contributed to my community—and still, it feels like I’m invisible. And more than anything, I felt this painful sense of being dehumanized. To be told that I couldn’t renew my protection or work permit was like being told I don’t matter, that I’m not seen as fully human in the eyes of this country.”

“It is important for me and other SIJS youth to have deferred action because we already have a history of having adult figures in our lives that we cannot count on, we have already gone through so much pain inflicted by the adults that are meant to protect us and to have the government come in and say there are options for protections for us and then change their minds and take that away again, it creates a cycle of trauma and continues to make it difficult for SIJS youth like myself to focus on the future because we are constantly focused on the fear of being detained and deported to a country that a court has already established is not in our best interest to return to.”