Nashville Dreamers share their stories ahead of a Supreme Court case that will determine their future

Rachel Wegner | The Tennessean

Show Caption Hide Caption Video: Voices of Tennessee DACA recipients Evelin Salgado, Cesar Virto, Mercedes Gonzalez and Jazmin Ramirez speak on what DACA means to them

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear case that affects the future of nearly 8,000 young immigrants in Tennessee on Tuesday.

The future of the embattled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been in the balance as it has worked its way through federal courts since September 2017, after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced it would end and legal challenges ensued.

DACA provides renewable work permits and Social Security numbers to more than 650,000 immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children, according to data from the Center for America Progress. It also removes their fear of deportation. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling is expected to come by the end of the court's term in June 2020.

Ahead of the hearing, The Tennessean spoke to four DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, who live and work in Nashville. These are their stories.

RELATED: The history of DACA is full of Tennessee voices. Now its future hinges on a looming Supreme Court decision

Mercedes Gonzalez

The year she turned 18, Mercedes Gonzalez said she felt like trouble was waiting for her. She was pulled over for speeding by Nashville police just days before her graduation from Overton High School in 2011.

She was arrested by a Metro Nashville Police Department officer for driving without a license and held for deportation. Her story garnered public attention as advocates worked to free her from jail. At the time, her attorney Adrienne Schlichtemier cited the attention as beneficial to Gonzalez.

Gonzalez said the experience was a turning point for her, and she joined an organization that advocated for immigrants like herself. She met then-President Barack Obama in 2012 at a conference in Washington, D.C. and was able to share her story with him.

That same year, Obama created DACA via an executive order. Gonzalez believes that stories like hers, and countless other young Dreamers, ultimately moved Obama to establish the program.

“People have a lot of power, and you can see it with my story," said Gonzalez, now 26. "If it wasn’t for the youth in my community, I wouldn’t be here.”

Cesar Virto

Growing up in a small town in Alabama, Cesar Virto, 30, had no idea he was an undocumented immigrant. But when he wanted to start driver's education at 16, he learned he didn't have a Social Security number.

“That’s when my world came crashing down," he said.

He lost interest in school, rebelled against his parents and began to get into trouble. After he broke the windows of a home owned by a married couple in his city, they decided to help him, instead of pressing charges.

They became close with Virto, helping him through college and introducing him to the Baptist church. To this day, he is an active member of his local church.

“It saddens me because they’re big Trump supporters," Virto said of the couple. "But they always will say, ‘Well, you’re different. You want to try. You want to fix your status.’ Every Dreamer wants to fix their status. They just happened to put a face (with it)."

Virto said his relationship with the couple in his Alabama hometown inspired him to educate others about Dreamers and immigrants, with hope of humanizing a politically divisive topic.

“If I can change one person’s view, at least to be more compassionate, that means the world," he said.

Virto now lives in Nashville and works for Lyft, operates an Airbnb, owns a home and is an investor. While he has built a life for himself in the U.S., he also wrestles the possibility of DACA coming to end.

“All my dreams, all my ambitions, are hanging on one little thread — it’s yes or no," he said of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case.

Evelin Salgado

Evelin Salgado always knew she wanted to be a teacher, even as a child in Acapulco, Mexico.

“All the kids in our neighborhood would come to my house and I would teach them," she said with a laugh.

But when her family made the long journey to the U.S. when she was 10 — much of which was on foot through dismal conditions — she realized life would be very different for her going forward.

“I grew up knowing that … I wasn’t going to be able to accomplish my dream," she said.

Once she was approved for DACA, she embraced the opportunity to move forward with her life. She was able to attend college — the first in her family to do so — and began teaching in 2016. She is now a Spanish teacher at Cane Ridge High School in Nashville.

“My kids are everything to me. I cannot imagine my life outside of the classroom,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “I never imagined loving someone else’s kids as much as I love my students.”

But the day Salgado, now 25, had to tell them that DACA may end and she was in jeopardy of being deported, she said she was shaking and overwhelmed.

“I just want people to know who DACA recipients are. I want them to know that this is my country … This is home to me," she said. “I don’t want to stay in this state of not knowing what’s going to happen."

Jazmin Ramirez

In 2018, Dreamer and activist Jazmin Ramirez, 25, found herself leading a march in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville toward the home of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee. The march was an effort to rally his support for the latest version of the DREAM Act, which would create a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.

Ramirez said 122 Dreamers a day were losing their DACA permits nationwide, at that time.

“We brought 122 roses with pictures and stories of DACA recipients in the state of Tennessee that would be impacted … if the DREAM Act were to pass," she said. “It was such a powerful moment."

After the march, Alexander issued a statement that he would support the legislation, which later failed to pass.

In August 2019, Ramirez left her job with Metro Nashville Public Schools and began working for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition. There she organizes immigrant youth and leads advocacy efforts for DACA recipients.

“I think the American dream is much more than a piece of paper, than a status," Ramirez said. “No matter what happens with the Supreme Court, it’s not the end of the story.”