Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Many DACA recipients, or 'Dreamers', aspire to join the military.
That was the case for 24-year-old Griselda Cervantes, who calls Columbia home.
Because of her legal status, she couldn't join the Army, or qualify for scholarships to help pay for school.
She was born in Mexico, but like thousands of Dreamers, she only knows what her native country looks like through pictures.
This is her story.
"I just knew I wanted to join the Army," said Cervantes.
Cervates was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco. She immigrated to the United States with her mother and three siblings when she was one.
"We went to California first and we only stayed there for maybe two weeks, then we came to Allendale," she said.
Cervantes spent most of her life in Allendale, then moved to Columbia three years ago.
Throughout high school, Cervantes was a member of the Junior ROTC. She dreamed of joining the military, until she found out she couldn't.
It wasn't until 2016 when the Department of Defense created a program allowing Dreamers to apply to be in the armed forces.
But, for fiscal year 2017, the program MAVNI or Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/what-is-mavni-information-for-designated-school-officials) stopped accepting applications while it revises its current implementation plan.
"It wasn't until I started the process of the application, that's when I found out I was undocumented because it required a social security number and I didn't have that," she said.
So her focus shifted from the military to pursuing a higher education in the legal field.
"I originally wanted to become an attorney and practice on immigration because it's something I feel so strong about, but in-state tuition is just crazy," said Cervantes. "I would never be able to afford it...I don't know what I want to do because I can't do anything. That was my thought back then. 'I can't do anything'. So what am I good for?"
To make a living, Cervantes began working multiple jobs, seven days a week.
"I remember trying to leave one of them and my boss said, 'You will never find a job because you're undocumented'," said Cervantes.
Those words motivated Cervantes even more. She vowed to never quit.
When she moved to Columbia, she found a better-paying job as a receptionist at an attorney's office.
She saved up for a car, got married, and she sends money every month to her parents who returned to Mexico.
"My father was deported last year, in August," said Cervantes, who revealed her father had an Order of Deportation; He did not have a criminal record.
"People tell us to go back, but they brought us over here because life over there is hard," she said. "What you make in a week here, you'd make in a month over there."
If House Bill 4435 (http://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=4435&session=122&summary=&PRINT=1) passes in South Carolina, Cervantes will be able to use in-state tuition benefits to study to be a paralegal.
She hopes come March, lawmakers will pass a Clean Dream Act giving DACA recipients a pathway to citizenship.
"We could get deported at anytime," said Cervantes. "So we are the number one target if DACA gets taken away...We are just as much citizens as everyone else. They have the paper and we don't. That's the only thing that's different from us."
