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RENO — Sergio Rivas, a promising young soccer player drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes in January, strolled past the flashing, jangling slot machines in the lobby of Harrah’s Reno, where he is currently living on the 18th floor.

The young Mexican-born athlete might seem to be living the high life, were it not for his status as an undocumented immigrant, which has left him with an uncertain future as a professional player.

Rivas is a “Dreamer” — part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, an Obama-era program that protects children who entered the country illegally from deportation. For now, he is allowed to work in the United States legally.

But his complicated immigration status clashes with the way Major League Soccer customarily fills its roster slots, and that has limited his ability to play in North America’s top professional division.

So Rivas, 21, is living at the casino and playing with Reno 1886 FC, the Earthquakes’ minor league affiliate, which has an arrangement with Harrah’s to house many of its players. San Jose officials send most of their young talent to the second-division United Soccer League team for development. But those other players have a clear path to success, and Rivas does not.

“I wish things were different but if I can’t control it then what can I do about it?” said Rivas, who entered the United States with his family 14 years ago, when he was 7. “I’m trying to figure out ways, and there are not a lot of ways, especially with the President and the way things are going.”

Earthquakes executives say they understood the challenges when they selected Rivas as the 26th overall pick in the January draft. They say they are committed to making it work, and described the 5-foot-11 midfielder from Albuquerque, New Mexico, as a long-term project with uncommon talent.

“The most important thing for us was the talent,” said Jesse Fioranelli, general manager of the Earthquakes, about the decision to draft Rivas.

The problem is that, as a result of his immigration status, the young player does not neatly fit the designated categories MLS normally uses in filling the up to 30 roster spots available to each of its 24 teams.

American or Canadian citizens or legal residents fill 22 of those spots. The league also allocates eight international slots for each team. But those spots are used to recruit accomplished foreign players.

Rivas meets neither criterion.

Although he can work in the U.S., he is not a citizen or permanent resident, and DACA currently does not provide a pathway to a green card. Indeed, the future of the program itself is uncertain: President Trump ordered an end to the program two years ago, a decision that was immediately challenged in court. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case in November.

As a way to get more high-level foreign players on their rosters, the Earthquakes and other MLS teams hire immigration lawyers to help them obtain EB1-A green cards — permanent residency status that is granted to “aliens of extraordinary ability” — for immigrants who have been on the league’s rosters for a year. Half of MLS’ 675 players this year were born outside the United States or Canada, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, which compiles statistical information on North American pro sports leagues.

But Rivas is an untested rookie, not the experienced player the slots are meant for. Rivas is already in the United States. And even if the team helped him seek permanent residency here, having overstayed a visa from when he originally entered the country he’d have to return to Mexico to get a green card and could be barred from the U.S. for up to 10 years, said Jackeline A. Clements, an Atlanta-based immigration lawyer.

Chris Leitch, who handles player development, said the team was exploring all options for residency for Rivas, but “every opportunity is met with a roadblock that seems pretty tall to climb over.”

Despite all those obstacles, if the Earthquakes chose, they could give Rivas the next open international slot. But they did not do so when the last two such slots opened up. And, in a kind of Catch-22, they are unlikely to do so without testing him out in professional games, and they can’t put him in an MLS game without giving him a slot.

Joseph Rosen, a Georgia immigration lawyer who handles cases for soccer players, said even if Rivas was given an international slot, he was unlikely to end up with a green card as a result.

“Absent of some type of amnesty, this kid will never get a green card through employment,” he said.

Rivas hopes that playing for the Reno 1886 FC will give him a chance to prove he is worthy of an international position in San Jose, even if a green card remains elusive.

“You wonder if he is going to slip through the cracks,” said Rivas’ youth coach, Justin Sells of Albuquerque-based NM Rush.

For Sacramento’s Miguel Aguilar, the league’s first-known “Dreamer,” a successful Major League Soccer career never materialized, and his immigration status may have played a role. In 2015, the former University of San Francisco star held an international roster spot with D.C. United but mostly played in the second division over four years.

“A lot of times I felt there was no way out,” Aguilar said in an interview.

The midfielder concluded that marrying an American was the only option, which is how he said he eventually obtained a green card after retiring from soccer.

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Rivas’ life was uprooted in 2005 when his parents left Parral, a city of 100,000 in southern Chihuahua that is near areas controlled by the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels. The family’s lumber transportation business started to struggle after an uncle died in a car accident, Rivas said. Also, the family worried about increasing threats of ransom demands by cartel members, Rivas’s father, Armando Rivas, added in an interview in Spanish.

Armando Rivas and his wife, Olivia Rivas, entered the United States legally with work permits, Armando Rivas said. They also brought their three sons, Daniel, Sergio and Isai, with them. A fourth son, Bryan, was born in the United States.

The couple, both college-educated, currently work in Albuquerque chain restaurants.

“Normally us Mexicans come to work and one day return” to Mexico, Armando Rivas said. “The idea was to come for security for some time and have the kids study English for two or three years.”

But the family’s plans changed when his boys discovered soccer and became accustomed to American schools, he said. At the same time, the cartel violence in Mexico was escalating.

“Clearly our heart was in Mexico but our head was here,” Armando Rivas said.

Rivas and his older brother Daniel joined a neighborhood soccer team in Albuquerque at their mother’s urging. Sergio Rivas’ play impressed local coaches who gave him a scholarship to the NM Rush.

Although Rivas was New Mexico’s player of the year as a high school senior, he did not attract much attention from recruiters, the Rush’s Sells said, because his residency status prevented public colleges from offering him financial aid. According to the American Immigration Council, undocumented students do not qualify for federal student loans, work-study, or other financial assistance.

Sells, however, did not give up. He got coaches at Seattle University, a small, private Catholic school, to watch Rivas in a youth tournament. The coaches offered the teenager a scholarship.

In four seasons, Rivas had 19 goals and broke a school-record with 27 assists. He was Western Athletic Conference freshman of the year in 2015 and made all-league teams the next three seasons. He has two more quarters to graduate with a degree in strategic communications.

Rivas has been impressive this season in Reno. The 1886 FC won all but one game that he started. But Reno coach Ian Russell said Rivas will have to be consistently strong for the next 1½ years before the Earthquakes consider him for an international slot.

Rivas said his feelings of uncertainty were compounded in the summer by a lingering back injury. Reno coaches took the unusual step of giving him a mid-season break to be with family in Albuquerque. He has since returned to the team, whose season ends in October.

Armando Rivas said he and his wife have encouraged their sons to never give up their goals. It is a message Sergio Rivas said he carries with him to help overcome his doubts.

“People are telling me, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that,’ ” he said.

“Yes, I can.”