Beyond the Dream

[MUSIC] >> Alexis: When I turned five, I remember us packing up for something.

And I had to say goodbye to my grandma.

I knew something serious was happening.

I knew that there was a change coming.

And I didn't want it because it meant saying goodbye to a life that I was so used to already.

[MUSIC] >> Pratishtha: I remember the flight and the sliding doors at the airport checkout.

I didn't know how to process a lot of the things.

As a child, as a ten-year-old, it was all so new.

[MUSIC] >> Rachel: My dad bought me a stuffed husky at the gift shop.

And then we were at JFK.

You're in fourth grade, what are you gonna do?

Your parents tell you you're gonna move and then you move, that's it.

>> Pratishtha: As a child, I don't think I planned for any of it.

>> All Americans, not only in the states most heavily effected, but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country.

>> Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told us illegal immigration is good for the US economy.

>> First and foremost, it has to be about keeping America safe from ISIS.

>> Number one, we're gonna build a wall.

>> For young people who come here, brought here oftentimes by their parents, think of this as their country.

Understand themselves as Americans.

>> These aren't people who have any right to be here.

There are way too many and there shouldn't be any.

[MUSIC] >> Alexis: For a long time, the only thing I wanted was to be normal.

I used to literally go to church and ask God, just make me normal.

[MUSIC] So what is a DREAMer?

A DREAMer is brought here to the United States at a young age by immigrant parents.

But they don't have papers.

>> To give background on all of this.

DACA stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and provides immigrants of certain qualifications with a way to stay and work in America, on a temporary basis.

>> Pratishtha: DACA is the reason why I have a job and it's the reason why I can drive around.

>> Alexis: But it's not a path to citizenship or any sort of legalization in the country.

>> Pratishtha: DACA is only good for two years and you have to reapply every two years.

So that picture of having DACA taken away is very, very scary.

>> Rachel: So this summer I am traveling with- >> Pratishtha: Two people that are completely strangers to me.

>> Alexis: My name is Alexis.

I was born in Mexico and I lived in Mexico until I was five.

>> Rachel: My name is Rachel and I'm 23 years old.

I was born in South Korea and I came to Parsippany, New Jersey when I was in fourth grade.

>> Pratishtha: My name is Pratishtha.

When I migrated from India, I was almost 11 years old.

>> Alexis: We are going cross country from LA to DC to interview people who have led unique and interesting lives.

>> Pratishtha: They have had their fair share of struggles and they are bringing about a change.

>> Rachel: Hopefully just give me some sort of direction on what I want out of life which I don't know right now.

[LAUGH] >> Rachel: Currently, the Supreme Court is looking at the expansion of DACA and the creation of DAPA which would protect immigrant parents of US citizens.

And we will be finding out the ruling of that case during this trip.

>> Alexis: I see some green, I see some green.

I see it, I see it, I see it.

It's over there.

>> Whoohoo [MUSIC] >> Alexis: What is this?

[MUSIC] >> My god.

My god, this is so beautiful.

>> Hey look guys, there's keys over here.

Here are the keys.

>> Rachel: I don't know how you expect us to drive that.

>> Rachel: This is the biggest thing I've ever seen.

I can barely drive a Camry.

[LAUGH] >> Alexis: I think I have an undie for every single day that we're here.

So this is actually Tijuana, adjacent to San Diego.

About two hours East of this, you'd find yourself in Mexicali, which is the city which I was born at.

The border kinda starts flowing over there and then it.

[MUSIC] Where we used to live in Mexicali, it was unpaved.

So it was mostly dirt.

And when you got here, it was all fancy looking to me.

It just looks so different.

Once I got here, I remember not being able to go out, and being behind the fence.

It felt incredibly violating for my freedom to be taken away.

When I look back and I think about why my mom and dad decided to bring me here.

It all makes sense.

My mom was working at a factory.

My dad was trying to find a job.

There were a lot of corporations, megastores, coming in.

And a lot of those business drove out the smaller mom and pop shops.

That effect on the economy drove my parents to look for something across the border.

But when I went to high school, that's when things started getting a little rough.

My god, I don't have a California identification, I don't have, Social Security card that they're asking me for.

I have a school ID and my passport from Mexico.

And I knew that, that's not what I needed to be here legally.

Being undocumented makes me feel like you're neither here nor there.

I'm working now for Teach for America.

Ironically, I actually get to teach American U.S. history to eighth graders and I think that's funny because I'm not a technically American, but I am.

I speak the language, I pay the taxes, a lot of taxes.

And I'm teaching history to the next generation which is something that I love.

It's very fun to be an expert on the country that you so badly want to be part of.

>> Pratishtha: Let's do this.

>> Alexis: What I'm hoping to get out of this road trip is a little more confidence, a little more fearlessness.

I don't want to be afraid of taking up space anymore.

I wanna be unapologetic about existing.

[MUSIC] >> Rachel: So we are in downtown Los Angeles.

>> Alexis: To interview Jose Antonio Vargas.

>> Rachel: Pulitzer Prize award winning journalist.

>> He heads Define American and he's produced a documentary called Documented.

[CROSSTALK] >> I live the American dream building a successful career as a journalist.

But I was living a lie.

So, five years ago this month, I came out as undocumented in the New York Times magazine.

The only thing I prepared for was I wanted to document my own story.

So I was like, okay, let me write my story but let me provide the platform for people to tell their stories.

So hence Define American.

I'd like to say that our job is to take immigration out of this box that people have put it in and make it broader, and make it more accessible, and make it more human.

[MUSIC] I found it very hard to find people like me in the community.

>> She needs to move to the West Coast.

>> Rachel: [LAUGH] We'll talk.

I just grew up so confused as to what my place in this conversation is and should be and could be.

Because people just have these assumptions of me and make judgments about me without knowing me.

They will never know me, they will just know me as an undocumented person.

>> Right, isn't that one of the greatest ironies to being undocumented.

Your life is dictated by pieces of paper, yet knowing that you're not just a piece of paper.

When I go on Fox News, as I did a couple of days ago, when I go back online I'm guaranteed 100 messages.

Saying how dare you, you illegal person, get the hell outta here.

There are times that it is really hurtful, right?

Because it seems so personal.

The ones that always get me, are the long ones, the long thought out.

>> [LAUGH] >> Kind of like, they spellcheck this.

>> [LAUGH] >> Right, I'm like, they actually spellcheck this hate mail.

And for me I think it was two summers ago, actually right after my film aired, I declared independence from all these expectations that people have of me.

Once I start being afraid of a group of people, then I've lost whatever power I have.

>> Pratishtha: I wanted to touch on internalizing struggles with many identities.

I immediately feel when people are like you're not just Indian.

You're not just working really hard to get to your dream.

You're also undocumented, and that has its own connotation.

>> I think identity is something that you struggle with all the time.

It changes.

There are certain things that you.

And especially with us, that deal with so many identities.

I'm just trying to figure this out like you're trying to figure it out.

The only thing is I've lived longer.

And this is really, I think, the central struggle and question, I would imagine for people in your generation being somebody like this.

Is deciding what parts of yourselves to give people and what parts of yourself you give to yourself.

Do you know what I mean by that, right?

You don't owe anybody anything.

And you come from that place of this is who I am, this is my name, this is my story.

What's yours?

Cuz if you don't connect, then what are we doing?

>> Sure.

>> Alexis: So we're interviewing people that we admire.

What's your advice for us?

>> Don't use being undocumented as some sort of a crutch that you can hold to.

You are way more than that.

But in addition to liberating yourself and creating for yourself your own vocabulary of success is this idea that our jobs as human beings is to connect with one another.

Those to me are the two fundamental things that I still deal with every day.

[MUSIC] It's like a tour bus.

>> Yeah.

>> That's amazing.

>> Yeah, get in.

>> Wow.

[MUSIC] >> I really liked how human he was.

>> Do you all sleep here?

>> Yeah.

>> This turns into my bed.

And this turns into Pratishtha's bed.

[MUSIC] >> Define American your way.

>> Alexis: Like yes, it affects your life.

But it doesn't have to encapsulate how do you approach the world every single second of your life.

[MUSIC] Throughout these 19 days I want to make sure I'm in the present, I'm in the moment and to let go of any fears.

Then jump off and see just what happens.

[MUSIC] >> [LAUGH] My god [LAUGH].

This is how I die.

Hi mom, bye mom.

[LAUGH] >> So, I'm about to take off and try this crazy thing called paragliding.

>> Something, I didn't think I would ever have the guts to do.

>> Rachel: So, once he got all my equipment and he's like, you see that cliff, you're gonna start walking toward it.

And then just don't stop just keep walking off of it.

I'm like, what?

My God, this is crazy.

>> I'm not nervous, but excited.

>> Okay, this is terrifying.

This is terrifying.

[MUSIC] >> Rachel: My name is Rachel, and I'm 23 years old.

I was born in South Korea, but I have lived in New Jersey since I was about nine or ten.

And then last year, I came to Pueblo, Colorado.

I guess, I don't tell every person that I meet on the street that I'm undocumented.

I, consider myself to have grown up in New Jersey, so when somebody asks me that question, I usually say New Jersey.

And, [LAUGH] then sometimes they go but where are you really from?

[LAUGH] And I say New Jersey.

I, consider myself an American because I literally don't see anything different about myself than anyone else.

It's only when, things are popping up in the news or my parents tell me something about their removal proceedings that I think about the fact that I, have a few more things to worry about in life than other people my age.

My parents, they are facing deportation themselves and there currently is no path for them to be here any longer.

They don't want me to just be all alone in America all by myself.

Because without them, I don't really have family here.

[MUSIC] We're like, I don't know.

We're all pretty unclear as, young adults in general.

If you add in the DACAmented aspect it becomes a lot more complicated.

[MUSIC] So, I try actually not to think about myself, and my future and my life too much, because I, have no idea what I'm doing, where I'm going.

I'm trying to figure out what my life is gonna be now.

Because, there are so many things that I could be, that I should be.

But, I don't know how to be any of those things, how to do any of those things.

How to reach any of those things, so I don't know.

I'm just like super lost with everything.

Maybe I'll just be unhappy and lost and I'm a failure for the rest of my life.

I don't know.

[MUSIC] So, it's gonna be any second now.

[MUSIC] Now, start running, run with it, run, run.

My God [LAUGH] [MUSIC] >> enjoy it >> my God >> Rachel went first, and she was the most scared in the beginning after she went i felt like i could do it.

[MUSIC] Just walked off the cliff, and I just think, are you crazy?

Aah!

>> Even if you're scared, you have to smile for the camera.

>> I'm really not scared anymore.

>> We're up in the clouds, up in the clouds now.

[MUSIC] Hi mom.

>> Hello!

>> Just watch what I'm doing.

Paragliding, I'm up in the air!

[MUSIC] >> This is fun.

>> I love you Ma.

America, you're beautiful.

>> Day 5 was when we started making our way towards Utah.

That was a point where, I think it kinda became like very real and salient to us, because we were hitting the road, like, this is a road trip.

>> It was just very, very humbling.

We have this opportunity, like, holy moly.

A couple of years back, this was not something that was meant for us.

I mean, four years back, I couldn't drive.

[MUSIC] >> Pratishtha: Meditation is really important to me, to kind of declutter.

So I sat, and, time felt perfect [MUSIC] My name is Pratishtha.

I am, 25 years old right now.

I've been in Maryland for fourteen years now.

Most of my life at this point.

So, my major was biological sciences.

It's hard to be a bio major, and it's even harder to aspire to go to medical school.

I work two jobs.

I'm the primary breadwinner of my family.

But for me, it was an obvious path to take.

I'm gonna be a physician.

I, wanna tell the world I'm gonna be a physician one day, I'm gonna practice at a Johns Hopkins hospital, that's the place to be.

It's gonna happen.

I have learned to be patient from my dad.

He immigrated to the United States in 2001 and then we came here a year later in 2002.

So, that is my dad.

That's my dad.

[MUSIC] He passed away in November last year, so it's been a little over six months.

It's been hard.

He and I were really really close.

Well we got here and we landed in Virginia He was working at a gas station.

Sleeping a different gas station, cause he would work night shifts.

And he, took us around to see the room that he shared with other employees.

And he was sleeping on.

[MUSIC] It was a makeshift bed that was made out of milk crates.

[MUSIC] But I think that image.

[MUSIC] That image is the reason I finished school.

That's the reason I finished school.

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] My only fear for myself is I'll fall off track.

There are so many things that are on my shoulder and I have to take care of that I don't wanna forget the bigger picture.

[MUSIC] >> Alexis: We're in Vegas, heading to Voto Latino.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Welcome to Las Vegas.

I have to this say, this is the biggest Power Summit that we've ever had.

>> I'm really excited to be here.

There was no DREAMer movement when I was in college, and I was too afraid to say, I am undocumented.

I came to the US when I was 11 and then when I was 14, my tourist visa expired and that's when I became undocumented.

To bring you back to 2001, I mean, I thought there would be a DREAM Act and that I would be documented and that I would have a legal way to work and then I didn't.

My back was really against the wall, I only had two choices, one choice was to give up, drop out of school.

Or to break the law, get fake papers, and keep going, so that's what I did.

>> She climbed the ranks of Wall Street's most elite bank, Goldman Sachs, as a Vice President, but she did it all, get this, as an undocumented immigrant.

Julissa Arce is here to tell us about- >> I'm curious to that moment.

>> Alexis: You risked a lot when you did that.

So I'm curious, what was going through your mind and how did you build up that audacity if I may say, to risk something that people consider criminal?

>> I knew everything my parents had sacrificed and I knew everything I had sacrificed and I wasn't willing to give up.

When I think about an American citizen who was born here, they're not constantly thinking about the fact that they're an American citizen, that they have a US passport, that they have documents.

I made a decision in the workplace that I wasn't going to let that define me either, the lack of those papers wasn't going to be the thing that defined me.

The thing that was going define me at my job was going to be my work.

I had this opportunity to go work at Goldman Sachs, I wasn't going to say no to it.

I had to take that risk and try, because if I didn't try, I would have regretted it all my life.

If I got caught, and I got deported, then I got caught, and I got deported.

But if I wasn't going to achieve my dreams, it wasn't going to be because I didn't try.

I had to keep reminding myself that the papers were just a check mark that said I was eligible.

The fake documents didn't get me the job.

It was everything else that I had done, from first grade until I graduated college, all of that was what got me that job.

>> Rachel: What was it that made you just leave that life of such high accomplishment and what would be a dream for so many people to pursue something else that was really risky?

>> You guys talked to Jose Antonio Vargas before you spoke to me.

I went to a screening of Documented.

I felt like it was my life being told on screen.

It was in that moment, in that movie theater, that I said I have to share my story.

I don't know how and I don't know when, but I have to do it.

I had this great sense of responsibility that I had to use my experiences, that I had to use my resources and my access to open doors for other people.

And that's the turning point for me and for my career and for the choices that I'm making now.

>> Alexis: I wanna know, did you give yourself permission?

It could've been anyone else.

Why did you decide to this and not just let Jose Antonio Vargas do all the work?

>> Yeah, [LAUGH] that's a great question.

All of our stories are unique.

All of us bring a different perspective to the table and that's why it's important for more people to come out and share their stories.

>> Rachel: Julissa was amazing to me, because she's an economist.

She's a financial advisor.

She is a writer.

She does all these other things that I think are really amazing.

I don't have to choose between identifying myself as an immigration activist and whatever else that I'm interested in.

So that was super motivational to me.

>> Believe in your own abilities because they've gotten you this far.

Whenever you doubt yourself, just look back and look how far you've come and let that keep propelling you forward.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Joining us today in this conversation.

She's an actress in Jane the Virgin, and Orange Is The New Black.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Please welcome Diane Guerrero.

>> [APPLAUSE] >> Everything that I did has followed me, the shame.

I could hear the word immigration or hear people talking about it and I would shy away from it.

even though I had so much to say >> I was always interested in doing something with my life and living the opposite of what my parents lived.

I didn't want to live in fear.

Every day as a kid, I would pray to God and I'd say, all I want is for my family to be together so that they're all working and they're all happy and that I get to go to school.

And I get to be something really special one day so that I can make them proud.

Then my parents were deported when I was 14 and that was a really tough situation because I made the very tough decision to stay in the States.

>> Tell me about that day.

What happened?

You come home and you find the kitchen empty.

>> Yeah, it's weird because their cars were there and dinner was started and the lights were on, but I couldn't find them.

And then neighbors came in.

>> And that's how you found out that they were gone, the neighbors told you?

>> Mm-hm.

Here's the part where you're supposed to know what you wanna do or what, what kind of person you wanna be.

I didn't know what to do!

I didn't know how to be!

Because I was 14, and I was in high school, and I was by myself.

But I put my best foot forward in every situation and it worked out.

Maybe not always, but there were times and instances that they did and that just spoke volumes for me, and just validated the hard work, so I continued with that.

I continued that in college, and then after when I decided to say I'm going to try to take on a really difficult industry and put myself out there in a way so that people can see me.

Because I felt like no one saw me.

Just like no one saw my parents, or so many in my community.

>> You have a very successful acting career now and I'm curious, what would you say to people that have to decide between maybe pursuing the career of their dreams?

>> Yeah.

>> But they're alsot hinking in the back of their mind, I got to provide for my family.

>> Right.

>> I don't know if I want to risk going into such a crazy industry.

>> Right, here's the thing, always had that in my mind that, my goodness, I have to make money.

If I do this, then that's a risk.

Everything's a risk.

Everything's a risk and everything that we do in our lives, we do because we have a passion for it in some way.

The worst is to say, I heard this makes money, so I'm gonna go and try to do that.

That's no good.

It wasn't until I stopped denying myself what I really wanted to do, what really made me happy and then I just went for it.

>> As we explained briefly before, we're all 20-somethings, unsure what to do in life or what life has in store and how to be people in society.

Honestly, we have no idea.

Be good people.

Be good people.

And I think that,honestly, everything you need to do is just so that you can live to your best possible self.

So you could be your best possible self.

If you're not doing what you wanna do, then you're gonna be cranky.

You're gonna be angry and you're not gonna be successful and you're not gonna be able to eventually help others.

So I wanted to be an actor because it made me happy and it made me feel good.

And I was all like I'm a way better person.

>> [LAUGH] >> And I can serve people if I'm doing this sort of work because it makes me feel good.

Then I started evolving and knowing what the real reasons were cause I wanted to tell my story.

I wanted to tell stories that would influence people and I wanted to comment on society and what was happening to me.

Then I was like, wait a minute, I'm getting to interview and I'm getting seen.

What people don't realize is that it is so difficult for some people to get documented and to get their papers and to become legal.

And my parents tried forever.

And this system didn't offer relief for them and what I'm asking for is- >> Now I need to say something important and something that matters.

So who would have thought, you still get to do what you love and you still get to live the activist life that I so passionately wanted to do.

I always wanted to be like, "Justicia!"

you know?

>> [LAUGH] >> You have to be passionate about anything that you do in order to be successful in it and eventually be able to provide for yourself and your family.

[MUSIC] >> I feel like we're seeing a lot of ourselves in these people.

I know someone who has been deported before.

And Diane's parents were deported.

Julissa had to use fake papers to be able to get a job and provide for her family.

I know people that have done that.

And it's just these patterns that you keep seeing in everyone that I definitely see myself in them.

[MUSIC] >> Pratishtha and Alexis, they're like my friends from back home, we get along so well.

I genuinely really, really love them.

[MUSIC] >> Rachel: Just to have people around me that know what I'm going through, it's really nice.

That's clean, right?

>> We gotta go back there, don't we?

It looks horrible.

[MUSIC] >> The land of enchantment.

>> And chili peppers.

>> [MUSIC] >> We're about to interview Mabel Arellanes, the first undocumented lawyer in New Mexico.

>> My gosh, I wish more people would know about this woman, she has an incredible story.

>> So I'm a high school drop out.

I got pregnant when I was 15.

I met this attorney in Santa Fe and she said, so what are you gonna do after you have your baby?

And I said well, nothing, I'm just gonna go back to work.

And she said, would you be interested in working for me?

And I thought, really?

Like me, I'm pregnant, I'm about to drop out and she said yes, of course.

And I fell in love with the law.

That was the first time that I thought about ever going to college.

[MUSIC] So I went back to high school.

I went to my high school counselor and said I want to go to college and I will never forget this [LAUGH].

She looked up and said, Mijita, you will never be able to go to college because you don't have a social security number.

And I remember I started crying and I said what do you mean.

She said I'm sorry, you cannot go to college and I got home and I remember telling my husband I am going to go to college, I'm gonna go to college.

We organized students throughout the state of New Mexico and we were able to pass Senate Bill 582, which allowed undocumented students to go to college.

It felt like I was going to the moon.

I never imagined that I would ever be allowed to go to a university.

And then once I got accepted I thought, crap, what am I gonna do now?

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] >> I have to pay all this money [LAUGH].

>> [LAUGH] >> And I actually work nights.

So the difference that was owed to the university I would pay with that.

I would go to school during the day and then I would work nights.

I graduated and I wanted to go to law school.

I was so stressed out that I actually got sick my first semester.

My husband found me unconscious on the floor cause I was so stressed out.

And I didn't have insurance of course, so all those things started snowballing.

I think there was many points during law school where I thought I can't do this anymore.

I'm gonna drop out, I can't do it.

And I stayed and kept going.

I didn't go to law school for me.

I went to law school for the people around me.

I went to law school for my family, my community, for the people who face the everyday injustices.

And the people that don't have a voice.

And of course, my son, who's my pillar, my everything, to show them that we can do it.

I cried myself to sleep every single day until I took the bar.

Two weeks after the results came out, it was the swearing in ceremony.

All the Supreme Court justices are there, obviously my family.

And I remember one of the justices walked in and said Mabel, he said, congratulations, today you are walking in as a layperson.

He said, but when you walk out of this building, you're gonna be an attorney.

And I think, at that moment is when I realized, it took a village to take me here.

Dreamers, we come in all sizes and colors.

[LAUGH] And we, the dreamers, we have the power to make it happen.

[MUSIC] Because behind you, there's an army of people.

[MUSIC] Now I'm crying.

[LAUGH] Whatever you do, do it with the heart.

Always thinking about our families, 'si, se puede.'

Your story, seriously, you touched my heart, you made my day.

>> We will think a girl who has a child at the age of 15 will most likely never go back to school much less graduate and be a barred attorney 15 years later.

Those 15 years must have been really long, really, really hard.

It's gonna take time to get to where I wanna get to.

But I'm okay with that.

[MUSIC] Well, this is what I get for skipping meditation, God know how many days in a row.

>> Listen, I have skipped it for 23 years and I turned out just fine.

[MUSIC] Are you Facetiming your mom again?

[LAUGH] >> It's happening.

>> We were up, how many thousand feet?

11,000?

I didn't know that.

[MUSIC] >> I am extremely happy and that's super scary, because I know I won't be once this ends.

I feel like I have so many bad things going on once I go back to real life.

Where there is literally nothing that I would change or being mad about here.

I'm the worst person at this whole live in the moment thing, but here I literally just kind of ignored it all.

And I don't think that I've ever, ever done that in my life.

Just be wherever I am and be present.

[MUSIC] >> So peaceful, it's like a massage for the mind.

[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] [MUSIC] The Supreme Court has now handed the Obama administration a major defeat on immigration.

>> It's also especially significant to the 4 million people who would have benefited.

At this point, they're just sort in flux.

There's no final answer on what will happen to them going forward.

>> So, the DAPA DACA ruling came out on the 23rd.

What the four-four split said was, it's a deadlock.

There's no decision on it [MUSIC] >> It's not over.

I'm still undocumented.

There's a weird feeling that things are gonna go sour, that nothing's for sure.

I don't know what's gonna happen, and I worry about that because I worked so hard for everything I have.

[MUSIC] And I don't want it to just get taken away like that.

[MUSIC] >> We don't know what's gonna come next.

Is there gonna be a permanent solution?

We don't know any of that, so we're stuck again, in this uncertainty.

[MUSIC] >> I became a doctor.

Been here in practice since 1973.

I retired about three years ago this December, and then I sorta realized what the plight that each of you all experienced is.

And I started looking for someone that was doing something about it, and I couldn't find anyone.

So it seemed to me that the only way this could be changed would be for private citizens, such as myself, to say, this isn't right.

And we're gonna try and change it.

[MUSIC] I went to college.

When I got there, I was on a scholarship.

No one in my family had gone to college, so they couldn't really give much advice.

And so, I got there and I was from Bowling Green, Kentucky.

I hadn't been a lot of places.

I was out of my element.

>> Hm-mm.

>> I didn't know a soul there.

I was 500 miles from home, and so I talked to my faculty advisor.

And he said, well Mike, what are you gonna study and I said architecture.

He said, we don't have that here.

There is no architecture program.

And he said, well you did well in school, and you're really good at math and science, why don't you just be pre-med?

>> [LAUGH] >> So that's how I became a doctor.

>> [LAUGH] >> Man, so I'm curious to hear what was it in the immigration movement that instigated in your head this has gotta change.

Because you're self proclaimed as a republican, and- >> Yes.

>> That's something that in the immigration movement, there's a lot of polarizing opinions.

>> Well, I am a registered republican, but I really vote by heart.

And to me, the question was, how can we say that Melissa who arrived here before age one year, should not be able to go to college as opposed to my children.

And then I started to think about this, her mom's name is Maria.

I said, Maria, tell me about this, I didn't realize this.

She said, well last years valedictorian of her school, he's cooking hamburgers.

>> What?

>> He can't go to college either, and we got him into school.

So then I thought well, that's kind of good.

Here I am 70 years old, and I got two kids in college again.

>> [LAUGH] >> My wife said this is kind of going in the wrong direction, Mike.

>> [LAUGH] >> We need to work on this a little bit, so that's when I decided.

Maybe we'll have a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and we'll help a lot of kids.

So we're trying to take a group of students that probably would not have gone to college otherwise.

And say, okay, now here we are.

Here are 100 students.

We could have deported them for $3,250,000, and guess what we've all gotten out of that?

Well, here's what we've gotten out of that.

We would've lost a taxpayer, who in the course of their lifetime would've made $100 million in taxable income.

That also leaves a lot of money to buy homes, cars, educate children.

Perhaps start a business, employ people, and make our whole country better.

>> I find that really interesting, because when you look into this immigration issue, there are obviously a lot of people still in our country who are so adamantly against this.

Have you ever encountered any of those people in person, and- >> Yes.

>> What was that interaction like?

>> A lot.

People quickly fall into one of two columns, either for you or against you.

Some people say I don't agree with what your doing.

Why don't you send U.S. citizens to college?

Well it's a very simple reason.

Undocumented students have no resources for our scholarships within reason, or government funding or ability to borrow money.

Do I encounter that?

I encounter it every day, but we can all disagree.

We don't have to all agree on everything, and I think that's part of the United States.

We don't have to all agree on everything, but you're also human beings.

Melissa mother's one my best friends.

We go to church together- [MUSIC] Every Sunday, so I can't imagine her being deported.

I'd probably go with her.

Not everyone's gonna be pulling for you.

A lot of people.

Probably didn't think I'd ever be a doctor.

I wasn't sure I would either, but I was pretty determined to try.

Well, that's gonna happen to you in life whether you're an undocumented immigrant or a blonde kid from Bowling Green, Kentucky whose family never went to college.

And so, it's just one day at a time.

[MUSIC] >> Just live day by day, minute by minute.

I'll have challenges, I will divert, but I'll get back on track.

[MUSIC] >> Two days from now, we fly out.

Pack stuff up, getting ready to leave.

We go back to real life.

>> It's been surreal, like I never thought that I was gonna be able to go across the country so worry free.

I just crossed like the entire country.

[MUSIC] >> God, it's so good and liberating.

I love traveling in this RV, it's so much fun.

The landscapes, the way of living, like it really felt like traveling and I never had that before.

>> I could do this like all day, everyday.

We did so much and I don't know, it just went by so, so, so quick.

So we're on our way to our last interview, which is with Julieta Garibay.

>> The co-founder of United We Dream, which is a huge advocacy group for undocumented immigrants in the county.

[MUSIC] >> So, I came here when I was 12.

I remember being called wet back or mojada.

When I graduated from high school, my mother and my sister and I decided that i would go back to Mexico.

I felt really mad at the system here, cause I was like but I feel American and I don't understand why I'm not.

And then I arrive in Mexico, people would tell me, you're too Americanized, you don't even speak Spanish right.

You're not Mexican enough and it was just like a culture shock, cause you been told all your life you're Mexican [LAUGH] here in the US.

But yet, you arrive to your country of origin and then they tell you don't belong here.

[MUSIC] A year later, that's all I lasted in Mexico.

I decided to come back without documents.

And so, I went to Dallas Community College.

I got my associate's in nursing, cause that had been my dream my whole life.

I was like I wanna be a nurse, I love nursing.

And then in 2005, my sister finds out about the DREAM Act, which was ground legislation that would get me papers supposedly and we started organizing without even knowing like I had never done organizing.

My entire life had been nursing, nursing, nursing.

So even though my goal was to practice nursing or that's why I got involved, it became bigger than me practicing nursing and it became about building what has now become United We Dream.

>> The lash back, I'm sure, I can't even imagine as a co-founder of this organization, what it's been like and I'm just wondering what went through your head when you first began?

You know what I mean?

Like what did it take?

>> When I started, I would have never thought I would be part of direct action or choosing to get arrested for a cause.

Right now, if one of my brothers or sisters tells me, we gotta throw down and strategically this makes sense.

Do you wanna do it?

I'm down.

What we need to remember is that DACA didn't come freely.

It wasn't, for example, President Obama waking up one day and saying like, you all are nice and cute and studious.

Let me give it to you.

It was defiant, courageous folks that said, no, we demand something and we deserve something.

And even if I get a citizen, it doesn't mean I'm protected.

I'm still a woman.

I'm still a Latina, I still have an accent and the system is still against me.

I actually wrote a letter to my mom a week ago and I was telling her like, the young woman that started doing DREAM Act stuff and wanted to practice nursing is not that same woman anymore.

I am doing this work, cause I want her to walk to streets without being scared of being told something mean or something derogatory, because she's a Mexican proud woman.

Nobody should go through that, just because you chose to migrate to this country.

And so, as you choose to do what you wanna do.

Remember, where we come from and the struggles we've gone through.

Because at the end of the day, when you are 37 years old or 47 years old, the person that you're gonna have to look in the mirror and tell yourself 'did I do it right?

Did I follow my heart?

Did I fight for what I wanted?

Is gonna be just you.

You're the only one who's gonna say, yes or no to you.

I hope that in your heart, you remember like when you see that person who looks like you, you give them a hand.

That you remember that.

It's taken a lot of work, but we're gonna get to be in this country free.

[MUSIC] >> Rachel: I feel like I felt a connection with her just through her story and it's just interesting how we have such different stories, but we all can connect regardless of who we are.

>> Alexis: And I think Julieta made it very clear that we have to keep in mind what our parents did for us.

Before I even began the road trip, I didn't want to be just the dreamer.

We always have that label in our heads and we put it on ourselves sometimes.

The last interview with Julieta just kinda grounded me a little bit, because even if I do wanna forget the dreamer's thing, like I can't and I shouldn't.

It'd be a slap in the face to all the people that worked for me to have this.

>> Test your limits and break through barriers.

Love yourself, love others, love your courageous parents.

>> Before the trip, one of the biggest things that I didn't like about being undocumented is that there is just a whole group of people out there who have negative opinions about people like me and we think that we are on contrary sides within reality.

Like we're all humans, we all in the same thing.

>> We're in the same struggle and we're not actually competing with each other, and we shouldn't be fighting with each other.

We should be working together to change the system.

>> Many people, either shy away from talking about immigration reform or they feel like it doesn't matter to them.

You don't have to agree.

Nobody has to agree, but form an opinion, because too many a times when there are real issues to talk about and people didn't talk about, they became injustices.

>> Everybody should have a chance to reach their dreams.

It should be a human right.

I wanna see what else I can do and I wanna see what else I can do for other people, as well.

[MUSIC] >> I am more excited now to live my life and see like where I'm gonna be in a year, two years than I was before.

Because honestly, when I think back to a year before today, I would never think that I would be doing this and that I would actually be like happy, but I am.

>> If Julieta would have been disappointed when she was 12 years old there wouldn't be United We Dream.

If Jose Antonio Vargas would have just taken everything the way it's presented to him, he would have lived in a guild.

If Martin Luther King had not marched there wouldn't have been a change.

If I get disappointed and I say, I give up, you may not have a physician out of me, but that's not the solution to things.

[MUSIC] You don't have to be sure about everything, but always ask yourself, if not me, than who?

If not now, then when?

It's me.

And it's right now.

I miss my dad, but I wouldn't do justice to him if I didn't fight.

I'll continue to fight.

[MUSIC] We are so full of potential.

Hope the world's ready [LAUGH].

[MUSIC]