I’ve lived illegally in the US for 25 years.

Today I will share a secret that I have always been ashamed of. However, given the current political discourse and potential direction of the country, I feel it is my duty to make it public in order to bring awareness to this issue:

I’m an undocumented immigrant.

There, I said it.

So hi, I’m Jesus, a 26 year old from Mexico who has been living with you, albeit illegally, since I was one year old. It has been quite the journey.

For the most part, I had a pretty ‘normal’ upbringing. For most of my childhood and teenage years, I don’t think I fully understood the ramifications of what it meant to be here illegally and so I didn’t think much of it.

It was not until later in life that it finally dawned on me; friends began getting drivers license, cars, jobs, flying on planes, going to bars, visiting new towns.

All these seemingly trivial experiences in life were often times not a reality for me.

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With all that said, however, I never lost hope and when President Obama came into office, I had a feeling that things would change and suddenly they did. And boy did they change FAST.

In 2012, President Obama passed an executive action known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. DACA allows individuals like me, who were brought here as kids and finished high school, to be allowed to legally work without fear of being deported. Today almost 1,000,000 young people have been granted DACA and are actively part of this amazing society. Thanks Obama.

The day I received my work permit, I serendipitously received a call from the Department Chair of Mathematics at my college, Roger Wolf; he offered me a job. For the first time in my life, at 22 years of age, I could actually say YES to a job offer.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to finally be accepted as a member of society and be productive, a realistic chance at a better life. The highly sought after American Dream was finally within reach.

On that fateful day, I became a Mathematics Mentor at LACC. With new-found optimism in life, I began excelling in academia in a way I never had before. (Just ask my high school teachers how horrible I was)

President of the Computer Science Club, I did that. 4.0 GPA on 18 units, I did that also! I truly felt unstoppable.

I decided to take on real life. I dropped out of college to work at an amazing company as a web developer. At Studio III, I flourished into the person you see today.

Fast forward three years and I’m still at the same company, except now I have been honored and entrusted with the role of Chief Technology Officer. A role that 4 years ago, I could have only dreamed of.

The past couple of decades have been an incredibly wild ride. While not all of it has been a walk in the park, I am eternally grateful for every single experience and person I’ve met as it has made me who I am today.

But now it can all be taken away

Everything I’ve done can be literally stripped away with the flick of a finger. President-Elect Donald Trump has vowed to remove DACA within his first days of office.

The immigration policies of the next president will directly impact the lives of millions of people, including myself. With that said I urge you all to please keep an open mind towards immigration and don’t assume that we are all criminals and rapists.

We are your neighbors, friends, colleagues, co-workers. We are family.

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The purpose of this article is not to insult anyone but rather give you a perspective from our side. Additionally, I hope it inspires others like me to share their stories to the world.