There still isn’t a DACA solution. This recipient recorded what it feels like to be in limbo

On April 4 in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump announced he was deploying National Guard troops to the border with Mexico. More than 2,000 miles away, in the hot, dry Coachella Valley, a 25-year-old woman made an announcement of her own.

Scarlett, who was born in Mexico, had heard Trump's rhetoric – how the country's security was being threatened by illicit drugs, gang activity and illegal immigration. She had read his Twitter rants about immigration, including the one ending with this threat: 'NO MORE DACA DEAL!'

That day, in the driver's seat of her car, Scarlett clears her throat and holds up her phone in selfie mode, ready to respond to the president's challenge with the latest in a series of video diaries.

"We don't have to let fear hold us back," she says in the video. "We have people who support us."

The Desert Sun is not using Scarlett's last name because she fears it could jeopardize her status in this country.

Scarlett came to the United States without authorization when she was two years old and lived quietly in the shadows for much of her life. Growing up undocumented in the desert, Scarlett's mother encouraged her to channel her energy into her education. It was, her mom told her, "the only thing they can't take away from you."

But after the Trump Administration announced in September that it would be ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Scarlett was no longer willing to sit quietly. She realized she had something else that couldn't be taken away: Her voice.

Between February and April, Scarlett produced a series of eight video diaries for The Desert Sun. They chronicle the roller coaster of emotions she's experienced as the White House attempts to dismantle DACA, which provides her with deportation protection and work authorization.

The unscripted videos, recorded at her home or in her car, depict the optimism and persistence Scarlett has cultivated through years of overcoming barriers. They also capture her anger and frustration as time slipped away, like sand through an hourglass, and Congress failed to come up with a solution for the hundreds of thousands of young immigrants protected by DACA.

In the process of recording the videos, she morphs from a poised, cautious young woman to a brave advocate.

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"I wanted to really tell my story because I hope that it could help others see that, although there is fear, there are ways of getting ahead," she says in the April 4 video.

This is her story.

President Obama directed the Department of Homeland Security to create DACA in 2012. The program provided deportation protection and work authorization to hundreds of thousands of young people who had come to the country illegally as children.

But in September, eight months after he entered the White House, Trump announced he was ending DACA. The Administration gave Congress until March 5 to come up with a solution for the so-called Dreamers.

Scarlett recorded her first video on February 13, three weeks before DACA was set to expire.

At that point, the debate in Washington over DACA was so heated that it had lead to the partial shutdown of the federal government – twice – because lawmakers couldn't agree on how to resolve the issue.

After the first shutdown in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised an open and fair floor debate on immigration in February. Meanwhile, two federal judges had ruled DACA must remain in place, while related lawsuits moved through the courts.

"Today, I'm hopeful," Scarlett says in her initial video, recorded in her Indio bedroom, which has walls painted purple and blue. "I try to stay optimistic on a daily basis, so I can continue to do what I have to do."

On this day, she's determined to let nothing derail her plans. She graduated from the University of California, Riverside, with a degree in neuroscience and will be attending the dental school at the University of Southern California in the fall.

"I look forward to going to dental school and coming back to the Valley as a dentist, and that's what I try to keep my mind on," she says in the video. Her long, wavy hair cascades past her shoulders.

A week later, however, the prospects for an immigration bill looked grim. The Senate had tried - but failed - to advance four immigration bills.

"It's frustrating knowing that they've been working on this for so many months and they can't seem to come up with something that will help us," Scarlett says in her second video, recorded in her car on February 21, less than two weeks before the DACA deadline.

She speaks carefully, pursing her lips between thoughts.

"It's sad and disappointing, but we just have to keep advocating and moving forward," she says in the video. As with all the entries from her car, this one is recorded in the parking lot of the Palm Desert Civic Center Park, in between her science classes at College of the Desert and her job at a clothing store at a Palm Desert mall.

A White House-backed bill would have provided a path to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who came to the country as kids. It also carved out $25 billion for Trump’s border wall and curtailed legal immigration to the country.

Another bill would have granted legal status to DACA recipients, but it did not include funding for the border wall. Yet another included a DACA solution and border funding, but it didn't reduce legal immigration.

None received the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate, and it wasn't clear whether the 100-member body would return to the issue when it reconvened after a week-long recess.

"It makes me feel like they don't really care about our lives and maybe not even realize that we're humans and students, trying to have a life," Scarlett says in her second video. "Our lives literally depend on these decisions."

Scarlett has long lived with uncertainty.

She was born in 1992 in Coahuila, Mexico, and came to the U.S. with her parents when she was two. Her father, a mechanical engineer by training, found work in Cathedral City as a mechanic and landscaper. Her mother raised Scarlett and her younger sister and brother, both American citizens, in Palm Desert and then Indio. She later worked in housekeeping and catering.

Scarlett said she's known she was undocumented for as long as she can remember.

"I just remember my mom explaining to me the risk and consequences of being undocumented in the U.S. and what could happen if someone found out," she said during an interview at a Starbucks in Palm Desert.

As a young girl, Scarlett said, her mother didn't allow her to play outside. Law enforcement regularly patrolled their Palm Desert trailer park , on the lookout for gangs, street fights and kids causing trouble and, she recalled her mom telling her, "the police might come and take you away."

She said her younger siblings had more freedom to be kids.

"I would say I grew up with a lot of fear of what could happen to myself and my family," she said.

After graduating from Palm Desert High School, Scarlett attended College of the Desert. During her second year there, she qualified for DACA. She received deportation protection; finally, she could legally work and drive.

"It was a big burden that was just lifted," she said.

She studied neuroscience at UC Riverside, with the goal of working in health care. Her interest in this career path stemmed from her parents' experience: She'd seen them sick and injured but, without health insurance, they couldn't access care.

“I wished I was able to take care of them,” she said. “I wanted to be their provider.”

She decided to pursue dentistry. She was fascinated by how oral health is connected to overall well-being. She loved the idea of working precisely with her hands.

When U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Administration's plan to end DACA in September, Scarlett was mad. She also had questions.

"What does that mean for me?" she wondered. "Am I going to be again in that limbo position?"

A week before the DACA deadline, Scarlett's mind is filled with even more questions.

She's trying to continue forward with her life – working at the mall, studying at College of the Desert and volunteering at a dental office – but it's growing harder, with her future in this country looking hazier.

"You get caught up thinking, 'what's going to happen in the future?'" Scarlett says in her third video, recorded Feb. 26 in her car. "It makes me sad when I get caught up in those thoughts, but I try not to."

That same day, the Supreme Court dealt a blow to the Trump Administration.

The White House had asked the Supreme Court to rule on a DACA-related lawsuit filed by the State of California, the University of California system and several Golden State cities. U.S. District Judge William Alsup had decided that the Trump administration had wrongly ended DACA; the U.S. Department of Justice appealed the ruling straight to the Supreme Court. But the justices declined to take up the case, saying the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California should hear it first.

As a result, DACA recipients will likely have protection at least a few more months. Appeals courts should rule on the issue this summer, allowing it to return to the Supreme Court's docket in the fall.

Scarlett says it's challenging to live with constant uncertainty.

"We don't know what can happen a year from now, a month from now or even tomorrow," Scarlett says in a Feb. 28 video recorded in her bedroom.

Some days, that reality inspires a sense of #YOLO.

At those times, she says, "I just want to go and have fun, and enjoy it while I can."

Other days, though, she can't stop thinking about DACA.

"If I get caught up in my own thoughts about it too much and I overthink it, then I get depressed and sad, because I think about all the negative consequences, the things I can't do, and it makes me sad, and I don't want to do anything really, and I just want to stay home and depressed in my own room," she says.

"It really depends on how I take it day by day," she says.

The White House's March 5 expiration date for DACA came and went.

The deadline had become toothless, due to the federal courts' rulings blocking the Administration from ending the program. But for Scarlett, the date was symbolic: It marked a moment when Washington proved it didn't care about the lives of Dreamers.

"Honestly, I'm not surprised, but I'm very disappointed and very hurt that over these months, nothing was able to be passed," she says in a March 7 video recorded in her car. "It just makes me feel like at the end of the day, the president didn't want something to pass, he just decided to hurt us with this."

Her tone shifts from pained to persevering.

"I know we fought, and we keep fighting, and we will keep fighting and advocating, but he's not making it easy," Scarlett says. "He doesn't want to help us. He doesn't really care for us, otherwise, he'd work with us to find a solution."

Ten days later, Scarlett seems to have adapted to this new reality. She says her DACA expires early next year, while she's attending dental school. She sounds calm and well-researched as she explains that it takes the federal government about four months to process renewal applications; she says she plans to submit hers in the fall.

"As long as nothing changes with the renewal process, I should be OK," she says in a March 17 video recorded in her bedroom. "It puts me at ease knowing that I can renew. I just hope nothing else happens."

Something did happen. Kind of.

On Easter Sunday, Trump released a series of immigration-related tweets, apparently after watching a segment on Fox News about a caravan of Central American migrants making its way north through Mexico.

The first tweet ended with the exclamation, 'NO MORE DACA DEAL!'

The next day, Scarlett isn't sure if the tweet had any bearing on her future.

"I'm confused, I thought Democrats were in fact offering proposals but Trump wasn't agreeing with them?" she says in a text message.

In an April 2 video, her tone shifts again, this time from persevering to pissed.

"President Trump is once again complaining on Twitter and saying that DACA is dead and blaming the Democrats that they abandoned us, all of DACA, and they don't care about us and aren't doing anything to resolve DACA, when in reality he's the one that put it in jeopardy in the first place," she says in a video recorded in her bedroom.

Her dark eyes blaze. A smirk plays around her mouth.

"It's infuriating and it's annoying to have him go on again and complain and blame anyone he can," she says. "It's childish and he's the only one that really there is to blame for what's going on with DACA."

Scarlett, who for many years was fearful of taking risks, sighs.

"It's another day when he's being a cry baby," she says.

With a look of disgust, she ends the video.

On April 4, Trump signed the proclamation deploying National Guard troops to the border with Mexico.

"The situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis," the president said in a memo. "The lawlessness that continues at our southern border is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people. My administration has no choice but to act."

Border crossings have for the past several years been plummeting toward historic lows. The number of people caught trying to illegally cross the US-Mexico border last year was the lowest since 1971, according to Homeland Security.

As the Administration intensifies its crackdown on illegal immigration, Scarlett appears to have become emboldened – with or without the protection of DACA.

"I wanted to be able to do a little bit of my part to really help inspire other students," she says in her final video, recorded in her car. "I hope that something positive will come from this."

With a matter-of-fact smile, she stops the video.

Rebecca Plevin covers immigration and equality for The Desert Sun. Contact her at rebecca.plevin@desertsun.com or @rebeccaplevin on Twitter.