OGDEN — Gustavo Ruiz de Chavez was brought to the United States from Mexico when he was 10 and is now a legal U.S. resident. He thinks there ought to be a pathway to citizenship for others in his shoes.

"I think 99% of us are hardworking Americans, really, who have grown up in the country, have worked and poured our blood, sweat and tears into the country," he said. Brought illegally by his mother, Ruiz de Chavez, now living in Ogden, garnered "lawfully present" status and permission to work here thanks to the Deferred Access for Childhood Arrivals program created by President Barack Obama in 2012.

At the same time, many DACA recipients are on edge, worried about the program's future under President Donald Trump, who has made deportation of immigrants here illegally a priority, said Maleny Heiner. She was brought by her mother to the United States from Mexico as a child as well and is also a DACA recipient.

"I've talked to some of my friends and family members who are DACA recipients, and there's that fear, because you want to progress and grow in this country," said Heiner, who lives in Saratoga Springs. "But there's always a limitation to what you can do because you're being criminalized instead of understood."

DACA is geared to immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children by their parents and grants recipients permission to lawfully remain and work in the United States. As of Sept. 30 last year, there were nearly 538,000 DACA recipients across the country, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service figures.

But while apprehension has spiked among immigrants here illegally with Trump's focus on detaining and deporting them, particularly those with a criminal record, the nerves for many in the DACA community are likewise frayed. They may have legal authority to live and work here, for now, but they still don't have "lawful immigration status" in the country, according to U.S. immigration authorities. Similarly, Trump's strong talk on immigration alarms many in the community while the DACA program remains focus of a court challenge that dates to 2018.

"It's very triggering to have that administration, the 2.0 Trump administration, back in office, trying to finish what they started, essentially, by getting rid of DACA. I think that we're all very nervous," said Liliana Bolaños, brought from Mexico to the United States when she was 2 years old. Trump unsuccessfully tried to eliminate DACA during his first term.

Bolaños, who now lives in American Fork, said some DACA recipients are pondering the notion of returning to their birth countries, even if they barely remember them. Figuring in creation of the DACA program by the Obama administration is the fact that recipients typically have lived the bulk of their lives in the United States and consider this their home.

"I know DACA recipients that own homes, that are putting their homes up for sale or transferring (them) to another family member in case they are deported or they have to leave," she said. They're "facing the reality of maybe having to go home — or not home, but back to the country they were born in. On paper it's home, but in reality, many of them left when they were young children and have never been back."

Indeed, AnnaJane Aroyo, an advocate for the Latino community in the Ogden area, said many DACA recipients are leery of talking publicly, worried about getting on the radar of immigration authorities. "Right now the fear is just so intense, everyone has just shut down and doesn't want to talk," she said. "They are not willing to come forward."

Ruiz de Chavez, Heiner and Bolaños are in a more secure position. While they were all previously DACA recipients, each has since married an American spouse and secured legal U.S. residency. They all, nevertheless, are supportive of the DACA community, still have contact with DACA recipients and sense their worry. Ruiz de Chavez sells solar panels and invests in real estate, Heiner is a counselor at Utah Valley University in Orem and Bolaños is a policy analyst with Voices for Utah Children, a nonprofit child advocacy group.

"Once you're a 'Dreamer,' you're always a 'Dreamer,' even with legal permanent residency," said Maleny, using the term for people brought to the United States illegally as children by family members. "So it's really scary."

Since his inauguration, Trump's focus has chiefly been on immigrants here illegally. At the same time, Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, notes that the president hasn't taken any steps to end DACA, at least since starting his second term. MALDEF is a Latino civil rights advocacy organization in Los Angeles, California, and has intervened on behalf of DACA recipients in the federal court challenge to the program.

"Prior to his inauguration, Trump did say that he wanted this group of immigrants to be saved, basically, and called on Congress to do something," Saenz said. While lawmakers haven't taken steps to save DACA, Trump's comments, he went on, could be why U.S. lawmakers haven't tried to end it either.

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Meantime, Saenz advises DACA recipients to keep renewing their DACA status. The 6-year-old challenge to DACA, initially filed in U.S. District in Texas and led by officials from the state, continues winding its way through the court system and it could face many twists and turns in the weeks to come.

DACA advocates like Ruiz de Chavez, Bolaños and Heiner, for their part, keep a leery watch on things. DACA recipients are subject to close scrutiny by immigration officials, so much so, that Heiner says she's made sure to keep her record squeaky clean, clear of even a parking ticket.

The DACA program "is a great opportunity to work and contribute," Heiner said. "But being told continuously that it can be removed, and that what we consider our home — which is our home — could be removed from us, is terrifying."

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