Like many immigrants illegally brought into the United States as children, Fernanda Herrera took on added responsibilities and debt for herself and her undocumented parents after she was granted temporary protective status from immigration enforcement in 2012.

The 22-year-old Homewood resident says she took out student loans to study international relations at Samford University beginning in 2013 and that her parents' two businesses are now in her name, as are two car notes.

Herrera, who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, says she chose to shoulder that burden because she believed that she could not be deported because she had received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status.

But ever since President Donald Trump was elected in November, she has grown increasingly concerned that the DACA program that allowed her to gain the temporary right to live and work in the U.S. will be encroached upon or repealed outright.

"I know that I don't know anything for sure and I think that's probably the worst part of it. I just graduated from Samford in May and not knowing 100 percent that I'll be able to stay in this country is just very unsettling," Herrera said.

"I wish I could tell you that we're going to be O.K. and I'm even going to be here next week."

Fernanda Herrera, a Dreamer who lives in Homewood, took on student loans and other debt and responsibility under the assumption that she would be able to remain in the U.S. for years because of her DACA status.

'Not protected'

Trump's rhetoric on immigration has generated widespread confusion and fear among Dreamers, a shorthand term for people who were brought into the country without documentation as minors.

Obama instituted DACA in 2012 as a way to allow young undocumented immigrants who arrived in America as children to remain here and work or go to school rather than being sent back to home countries they have not been to in years.

Under the DACA program, more than 750,000 Dreamers across the U.S. - about 4,000 of whom live in Alabama, according to Hoover immigration lawyer Jeremy Love - have received renewable, two-year immigration enforcement deferrals. The status allows them to temporarily work, study and live in the U.S. if they meet certain criteria and do not commit felonies or serious misdemeanors.

But since Trump's January inauguration, there have been scattered reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiating deportation proceedings against Dreamers who have not been convicted of any crimes.

Trump said during his campaign that he would cancel DACA if elected president but he suggested that he was softening on that promise several months ago, when he stated that he planned to keep the program intact.

But statements issued in recent weeks by officials within the administration have suggested that DACA is being rolled back despite Trump's rhetoric.

Thomas Byrd, a spokesman for ICE's field office in New Orleans, which oversees immigration enforcement for multiple states in the Southeast including Alabama, emailed AL.com a statement last week that outlined the state of DACA under Trump and emphasized that people with the status can still be deported.

"Aliens granted deferred action from deportation are not protected by any kind of legal status, but are typically given a lower level of enforcement priority," Byrd said. "A decision to grant deferred action may be revoked by [the Department of Homeland Security] at any time, particularly in the case of someone who commits a crime or is otherwise found to pose a national security or public safety threat.

"Deferred action does not, in any way, prevent DHS from moving forward with execution of a removal order."

'Giving up on that dream'

Roshell Rosales remembers being brought illegally from a small town outside Mexico City to the United States by her aunt when she was three years old. She is now 18 and studying economics at the University of Montevallo on a full scholarship, an opportunity that was only available to her because she was granted DACA status about two years ago.

The Hoover resident says she "used to be really optimistic about DACA and everything, but now not so much," as she is concerned that the program will be rolled back and she could end up being deported.

"It makes me a little anxious, but I know you can't really do anything about it," she said. "Your end goal is to become a citizen and it feels very far away. It feels unattainable, especially now. The political system is not very optimistic on that. A lot of people are giving up on that dream."

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status recipient Roshell Rosales, a Hoover resident, says she "used to be really optimistic about DACA" but is concerned that it could be rolled back under President Donald Trump.

Victoria Siciliano Zucco, spokeswoman for the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ACIJ), said that many Dreamers in Alabama have concerns similar to those expressed by Herrera and Rosales.

"With the way we've seen this administration handle immigration issues, I do think people are right to be worried," she said.

"I don't believe that DACA recipients will become priority for deportation. I don't believe the list of DACA applicants will be used to facilitate mass deportations. However, the level of protection DACA used to provide is not the same as it was under Obama. We are hearing more and more of [young Dreamers] being picked up by ICE."

Love agreed that DACA is no longer as robust as it was under Obama.

"It does appear that DACA is now less of a protection from deportation than in the prior administration," he said via email. He also noted that Trump could repeal DACA at anytime via executive order, stripping hundreds of thousands of immigrants of the status and whatever protections it still provides.

But he too said he does not believe that Trump will do away with DACA, and that he advises existing recipients to renew the status if it expires within the next five months.

He said in a Facebook Live video Friday that he believes it is unlikely DACA recipients will be deported because "the majority of the cases have to go through immigration court, and it is highly unlikely that an immigration judge would order the removal of a DACA recipient without a criminal history."

Still, Love recommends that Dreamers educate themselves about their rights and that they stay informed on the latest developments with regards to DACA, though he believes the chances of people with the protective status being deported remain low.

"The purpose of DACA is to not punish people who were brought to the U.S. as kids," he said via email. "The federal government has stated that they are a lower priority for removal. They have already gone through the necessary background checks and have shown to be very valuable members of our communities."

Fernanda Herrera, a Homewood resident and Dreamer, has not been to her native Mexico since she was two years old.

'This shouldn't happen'

Herrera currently works as a law clerk at Maxwell Law Firm in Birmingham. Next year, she hopes to enroll in law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Like millions of other immigrants across the nation, her current personal and professional successes are a far cry from her family's dangerous life in her native Guadalajara.

Herrera and her parents came to America in 1997, after she says her father was repeatedly assaulted in the store he operated in the city, which she described as gripped by "gang violence and economic despair and lack of resources" at the time.

She was just two years old when her family brought her to America, and she has never been back to her home country.

As such, the prospect of being deported to Mexico is a terrifying one for Herrera, as it is for Rosales and many other immigrants who fled violence, poverty and other problems in their home countries. Herrera said she is particularly unnerved by the fact that her immigration situation is largely out of her hands.

"Honestly, there's really no fix. All I can do is lay low; I've never gotten in trouble or anything," she said.

She recalled the fear of losing her DACA status temporarily during college due to renewal application processing backlogs.

"It expired for about a month and I didn't leave my dorm for that whole month. It was very scary," she said.

Rosales says she too is concerned about what the future could bring. But she says that she has resigned herself to the possibility that DACA will be repealed and that she has chosen to simply live her best life in the meantime.

"What can I do? I'm just going to college ... I just go along with it and try to make the best I can of it," she said. "This shouldn't happen, but it's happening."