-Source-Forbes-
Julia* is a dreamer under DACA, which means that she is in the United States under DACA protection and is allowed to enroll in college despite her immigration status. She attended high school in McAllen, Texas and is now a student at the University of Texas at Austin. However, her older brother, who was once also in the United States under the protection of DACA, made much different choices than she did.
Finding a stable job as an unskilled and undocumented immigrant is hard, so when the family’s finances became tight, Julia’s older brother began to sell drugs. It did not take long before he began to dip into his own supply and within a short period of time he was abusing drugs. After a few encounters with the police and ensuing arrests, Julia’s family tried to engage him in serious conversations about stopping his drug use, but those proved to be ineffective. One of his most recent encounters with the police landed Julia’s brother in jail and resulted in his DACA protection being revoked.
Julia’s intermediate family, also immigrants, decided this incident was enough and sought out professional help from local drug treatment centers. However, their search for help revealed a legal system that is not flexible enough to allow immigrants who are impacted by the disease of addiction to seek help without fear of being removed from the United States. Read more