This reporting was made possible due to a grant from the Education Writers Association. It is part of a series about the challenges and opportunities facing Latino students in Alabama.
J. was in fifth grade when Alabama passed a law that imposed strict limits on undocumented immigrants.
She remembers protesting in the streets of Montgomery with her mother and siblings. By that summer, she told her teacher goodbye, bracing for a move out of state – or back to Mexico.
But J. was able to stay, graduate and earn a degree thanks to the temporary protection she received under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program…