When Alejandra Meleán came over to New Jersey from her native Venezuela, she was 11 years old.

The year was 2004. Going back to Venezuela, where inflation and crime rates were already rising, wasn’t an option for her or her mother Laura Márquez. After no paths to legal residency opened up for them, they ended up overstaying their tourist visas.

“It was ignorance,” Márquez confesses with regret in her voice. “I had no orientation and didn’t know how to become a resident.” Time went by for the family until 2013, when Alejandra applied for and joined the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was rescinded yesterday in a curt announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

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