Summarized from: (CNN)Luis Tapia will finally get his driver's license.
Marilu Saldanha will visit her mother in Mexico before it's too late.
Carina Ruiz de Diaz will register to choose - something she has helped thousands of others do, but has never had the opportunity to do on her own.
They are among the undocumented immigrants that President Joe Biden has promised to help with the new law, which he is urging Congress to pass. The measure will provide a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people who have been living in limbo for years.
Undocumented immigrants across the country told CNN they hope the president will make good on his promise.
They shared fears about the safety of their families, dreams about their future, and concerns about whether politicians in Washington would actually protect them. Their responses have been edited for length and clarity.
He says getting a driver's license will be a game changer for his family
Luis Tapia says he worries about his parents when they go to work.
Luis Tapia, 19 • Chef • lives in: Wisconsin • Country of origin: Mexico
"Now I'm applying for DACA. It would be great if there was protection for my parents, too, so that they would no longer be afraid to be in this country-afraid to go out on the street or to the supermarket, to be stopped without a driver's license. It's a horror we've always lived with. We came here when I was less than 1 year old. It wasn't until the deportations started under Obama that they told me we had no papers - that each time I realized the police could stop us and send us back to a country I didn't even know.
What Biden's Immigration Law Will Do
The proposed legislation would create a "well-deserved path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants in the United States. Here's how it will work if passed:
* Dreamers, TPS owners, and immigrant agricultural workers will immediately be eligible for green cards.
* Other undocumented immigrants can immediately apply for temporary legal status. After five years, you can apply for green cards.
* The holders of the green card can apply as citizens of the United States in three years. They would have to pass additional background checks and prove their knowledge of English and US citizenship.
"My father is a cook, and my mother is a cook. Whenever you go to work, it's 30 minutes of fear, not knowing if you'll stop. At this time, we are afraid that something will happen to them. We always send each other SMS messages that we have arrived safely somewhere or have reached home.
"We will see what happens over the next three months. We never know if something will change for our families and whether the changes will help us or create more horror for us. I hope this helps our family stay together and safe.
"The first thing we will do is get our driver's license so that we can drive in this country wherever we want and have no problems. This is something that we have always wanted to be able to go to another state or place without fear. "
He worries that his aging parents will never be able to rest
Glo Harn Choi, 28 • Community Organizer * lives in: Illinois • Country of Origin: South Korea
"If the immigration law that President Biden is proposing is passed as it currently stands, it will put me on track to eventually apply for a green card and then citizenship. But I think for me, what's particularly striking is the time frame for that.
"I had to for 15 years. Years of working to support our family financially. I worked in the hotel business-Server, Busboy, host, bartender, dishwasher, delivery driver, and then I also worked as an artist. By the way, I work as a photographer. It's hard, especially if you're a young guy. You see all your friends, many of them, who just want to live their youth. And I think a lot about how I wish I could have done it, too. But what really catches the eye is that my parents ' age is catching up with them. My mother works in the hotel business. She's Katerina. Every time I see them, I see how this physical work really strains them. I work with people about the same age as my mother, and my mother looks much older than her contemporaries because of the amount of work she has to do.
"So the timeline for this [account] means to me that I don't know if my mother has another eight years to rest and retire, which in my opinion is everyone's right to rest after devoting a lifetime to survival. I don't want her to survive.
"[What I would do if I became a citizen] is a thought that I had to suppress for so long because there was no path for so long. It was really just about survival. It's kind of hard to think about these things when you're really focused on not dying.
"I would like to be able to travel to Korea. I would like to see and explore some of my roots, because I have never had the opportunity to do so. I lost so much because of something as insignificant as the idea of legal status. "
She is ready to sign up for the vote and someday return to the career she left behind
Carina Ruiz de Diaz, 36 • Non-profit Executive Director * Lives in: Arizona • Country of origin: Mexico
"The first thing I would do is register to vote. Over the past five years, I've helped so many people register for elections, I've lost count. It's more than 1,000 or 2,000 people, because I wanted them to vote for me. I wanted you to understand the power you have in deciding who represents you.
"I'm speechless because the voters in Arizona passed a law that says I must provide proof of legal residency to study in the state. Because of this law, it took me 12 years to graduate from college with a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry, which I don't currently use. I don't work in my field because I have to fight this fight. My life, and the lives of people like me who applied for DACA and people who didn't, have been online for the last four years. This fight had priority.
"I dream of one day returning to my own field. I want to teach science. I want to do some research. If I were a citizen, I could do it again, knowing that I have become leaders in the community who can continue the work of a nonprofit. "
He has been waiting in limbo for decades and wants to see the world
Jose Antonio Vargas, 39 • Non-profit founder * Lives in: California • Country of origin: Philippines
"This bill is absolutely welcome. But I am also not naive, I know that it will be very difficult to pass this legislation. It's a steep climb, but it's a really good start. The administration drew a line in the sand.
"The people I first meet, wherever I am - in Mississippi, or Wisconsin, or Iowa - the most important question I'm always asked is,' Why don't you just get yourself legally?"It has repeatedly shocked me how people don't understand immigration as a process. The Biden-Harris government is very clear that we are making this process for the people. People like me couldn't adjust their status because there was no process.
"I can't wait to have a US passport and see the world. I would go to the Philippines and I would visit my mother. It's hard to live a life when you don't know when you can live it to the fullest. This process is something I've been waiting for for decades. And I met people in their 50s and 60s who had been waiting for decades.
"Today I was thinking about this man I met in Oklahoma many years ago. He was 48 years old and worked in construction and restaurant jobs. He wrote to me and said: "I've been here for 25 years and I really want to know more about my country. I want to visit New York, Las Vegas, Orlando, Hollywood. But I'm afraid to go to the airport, because I have no documents."He is not just a worker, he is an American-he simply has no documents. And he said: "I hope that one day we will be able to rectify our situation, and I will be able to get to know my country."When I hear about this bill, I think of people like him."
She wants her mother to meet her children
Marilú Saldaña, 29 * server • lives in: Pennsylvania • Country of origin: Mexico
" The path to citizenship would be amazing for me. The first thing I would do is visit my mother, who I haven't seen in 15 years. It's very sad, because we've both been through some tough times. I was really sick. She was really ill, and I couldn't help her. She couldn't meet my children, their grandchildren. I am so afraid that one day she will simply not be in this world and I will not even be able to see her again.
"I don't want to get too excited [about the score] and get heartbroken again because nothing happened. But I feel like my mother is getting older. I'm getting old, too. I just feel like I'm running out of time. "
She wants to feel safe when she goes outside
Morelis, 19 • High school senior • Lives in: Maryland • Country of origin: Dominican Republic
"When we came to this country, I knew I would be undocumented, but I didn't know what that meant-just how we were treated and couldn't get health insurance. Everything around the medical system sometimes seems so unfair. We had to deal with the Covid in our house. My mother was very, very ill at one point. She couldn't even breathe. But she refused to go to the hospital because we knew what that meant. We all knew we couldn't afford it.
"I want to go to college. But as an undocumented immigrant who doesn't even have DACA, many of the scholarships that exist for undocumented students don't even qualify for me. I feel very limited in everything I want to do. And I feel like this account can help with that - as well as with the fear I feel every day. Every time I leave my house, I feel like I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time. It would be a relief to just go outside and treat him with the dignity I deserve as a person. So my life will basically change when that goes away.
"Besides being an immigrant, I am a black woman in this country. I am afraid of the police and try to avoid them. I've never been in situations where many people are in the same place, because I feel like when something happens, things can get out of hand. I don't drive long distances either. I have a family in Miami, and I never went to see them. Because even when I take a long car ride, I feel like at some point I might be stopped and the police might give ICE my information. To school, if there's a field trip or something, and I feel like it's going to be in a place near the federal buildings, I just try not to go. That's how scared I am."
For the last three years, he lived in a church. Now he's praying for Biden's plan
Jose Chicas, 55 * pastor / entrepreneur * Lives in: North Carolina • Country of origin: El Salvador
"There is great hope that he [Biden] will help us-millions of families. But we still have to wait to see what happens.
"I have lived in this country for 35 years. It is not this protection that has affected us in all parts of our lives.
"It will make such a big difference. If you are a permanent resident, you can leave the country and go to another country and return. And with citizenship, it's even better, because you can have a voice and a voice in this country.
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