“Vasquez Moctezuma is frank in her assessment of her family’s legal status, since her parents are not eligible for DACA and continue to work without documentation.

‘We are breaking some laws just by being here illegally, but we bind to the laws here,’ she said. ‘We pay our taxes every year, like any other citizen would.’ She worries that her parents, who have paid into the Social Security system — which receives an estimated $12 billion a year from undocumented immigrants and their employers — will never receive benefits and will never be able to truly retire. Still, she said, ‘This is why I studied political science, because I love the government here. I feel like in so many ways it’s so great.”