Kamala Harris Invites 'Dreamer' Ph.D. to Congress

Our story about Yuriana Aguilar, the first undocumented Ph.D. to graduate from UC Merced, generated record traffic on our website last May. It also got the attention of Sen. Kamala Harris, who invited Aguilar to be her guest at President Trump's first address to Congress.

Aguilar came to California as a child from Mexico and worked her way through school picking watermelons, cleaning hotels and selling produce at flea markets.

Her parents have a farm outside Fresno. She helped tend baby goats and pick squash after working all day at a lab, where she was doing groundbreaking work studying the causes of sudden cardiac death.

Aguilar is a DACA recipient -- also known as a "dreamer" -- whose temporary status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has allowed her to work in labs and advance her career. She's currently doing her postdoctoral work in Chicago.

But her future is uncertain, especially because President Trump hasn't made clear whether he'll continue protections for "Dreamers." His Feb. 28 speech didn't clarify things either.

"He never mentioned DACA. And I was very disappointed in that because I was expecting to just have an answer. Is it going to stay, or is it going to go away, or is it going to change? I'm not sure what to believe," Aguilar says.

Sitting in Congress, with law enforcement and heavy security -- and with a president who has said he wants to deport undocumented people -- was a bit unnerving for Aguilar.

"I felt like I was going into la cueva del lobo, the cave of the wolf," she says. "I know he's the president. I acknowledge that he has a lot of power. I felt like if he wanted to set a precedent and take me out, I was there. There was not much I could have done. But fortunately, that didn't happen."

Aguilar says she's disappointed that she and the other Dreamers in the audience weren't acknowledged, while the family members of people killed by undocumented immigrants were.

"It makes me very fearful what he's doing in portraying us as criminals. I do want to say, that's not who we are," she says. "We're here to work, we have an American dream, and the Dreamers specifically represent that. We represent the hope that the parents had in bringing their children here. They understood education was the key."

Aguilar's dream is to come back to the San Joaquin Valley, where she hopes to open her own lab someday, to study the causes of sudden cardiac death.

"This country has given me a career, given me a degree which can go anywhere. I'm very thankful to the United States for that," she says. "I want to give back to the community that has made me grow, that has given me so much."

Aguilar has a 2-year-old daughter born in the U.S., and that only heightens her fear about possibly being deported.

"I hope all the anxiety goes away soon, for my daughter's sake, for her future."