When Fatima Cruz was six years old, her and her family came to the United States of America. Cruz is one of 800,000 recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Cruz who is currently majoring in business administration, and is Vice President of Student Government has felt what most of her fellow recipients are feeling right now and that feeling is fear.

“It scares me to think that I may someday go back to the country that have no exposure of. It would be like moving to a foreign country, in which you were only born in. DACA recipients are more familiar with the American culture and history. This is the only country we consider home,” said Cruz.

Recently the Trump administration made an announcement that the program was going to be repealed and gave Congress six months to act on the matter.

Elgin Community College has reacted to the announcement in different ways.

ECC President Dr. Sam sent an email out to the students letting them know that they support them and gave a list of resources that they can turn to, if they are stressing out.

An event was organized where students and faculty could write positive messages on the sidewalks of ECC, and it got the attention of the press and senator Cristina Castro. Castro an alumni of ECC made an appearance at the event, Castro has been very vocal to her colleagues about the importance of DACA.

“When I heard about the event, I wanted to stop to show support and give some words of encouragement, and that while we can’t tackle it at a federal level, but we are going to look at it from a state standpoint, and see if there is anything we can do to help out our undocumented students our DACA recipients feel more comfortable,” said Castro.

On Sept. 18 and 19, students from all different clubs and organizations were tabling in support of DACA and also doing some club promoting. They had laptops in which had a link that you could email your representative and convince them to put together the DREAM Act and make it a permanent thing in the country, help the recipients have an easier path to citizenship.

“I think it’s horrible that we, as a nation, would kick out people who know no other home. If this is a nation of freedom and liberty, then the founding immigrant fathers did not have their legacy fulfilled,” said student Brandy Kaminsky.

The tabling event was put on by the Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS), and while OLAS president Priscilla Gonzalez is not a dreamer, she believes that everyone has a right to a dream and disagrees with Trump’s decision.

“His decision was really uneducated. I do not think he’s looking at the big picture of how is going to affect the DACA recipients and the country in general,” said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez then made a video of students voicing their support for DACA which was then posted on Facebook.

Cruz said that one of the main things that non supporters of DACA need is awareness, to know what it means for people, to know that this could get them closer to reaching their dreams and goals in life.

“We need awareness. Most people don’t have clue of what DACA is or how it brings positive influences. If they do, some aren’t well informed. There’s many misconceptions, such as only the Hispanic population is DACA. This is a false statement,” said Cruz.

When asked about President Trump’s decision on the matter, Cruz said that many DACA recipients contribute a lot to society, that they aren’t just looking for a free ride.

“Thinking only about his decision, I think he made a mistake. DACA recipients pay taxes and are mostly in college or working. They are contributing to the economy yet don’t receive any benefits. I also don’t feel they, or we, should be to blame for the actions of our parents. We were brought here at a young age and we weren’t aware of the actions that we were doing. We shouldn’t be the ones to blame,” said Cruz

One of the upcoming events that relates to DACA is DREAMers Advocacy in Action, which Gonzalez and several other student leaders will be helping out at. The focus of the event will be to educate people about DACA and know the current status so far and what is going to happen. The event will have Castro, and congressman Mueller, and potentially Congressman Krishnamoorthi. There will also be a lawyer there to answer questions that recipients may have.

Gonzalez hopes that the recipients will not lose hope and know that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Do not be scared, remember that after the storm the sun always comes out. This is our time to show them who we really are and we are going to work so hard to make them stay,” said Gonzalez.