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From the Stars-and-Stripes flag on her desk to the way she spells colour — without a “u,” of course — Leezia Dhalla says she couldn’t feel more American.

She’s lived 21 of her 27 years south of the border, after all, and in the red-meat heartland of Texas, no less.

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Yet a contentious decision by President Donald Trump to cancel the so-called Dreamers program for illegal immigrants who came to the States as children means Dhalla could soon be deported to a country she barely knows – Canada.

The heated debate around the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy has focused largely on Latin Americans, who make up most of the 800,000 it affects. But Dhalla, who at age six moved with her parents from Edmonton to San Antonio, is among a surprising 750 Canadian citizens registered under DACA and now facing a hazy future.

Photo by Handout

Canadian Dreamers won’t be forced back to a developing country plagued by violent crime, at least, but the prospect of uprooting lives forged in the U.S. is still chilling, Dhalla says.