Two Women From Mexico Take Two Different Paths To Dallas
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DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - After suffering a setback in court, immigration advocates and religious leaders went to Christ's Foundry United Methodist Mission in Dallas to pray.
They group hopes a federal appeals court will quickly overturn a South Texas federal judge's ruling blocking President Obama's action that would help five million illegal immigrants.
For Liz Magallanes, the issue is very personal. "There is definitely disappointment with the judge's injunction."
Under the President's executive action, Magallanes' mother would be granted work papers, and relief from being deported. She says her parents brought her and her siblings here from Mexico when she was just seven.
"They made that sacrifice, leaving everything they knew behind, in order to give my siblings and I a better education, like so many others do." Her mother is eligible because Magallanes' sister became a U.S. citizen after she got married.
In 2012, Magallanes no longer had to worry about the threat of deportation and was given work papers after the President made an executive action that covered children of illegal immigrants.
Carla McPike also came to the U.S. from Mexico, but took a different path. On Tuesday afternoon, McPike and others became U.S. citizens.
McPike says in 2006, she got a student visa to study here, then a work visa. She then married her husband, a U.S. citizen.
"This is a dream I had since I was a little girl, and dreams do come true," she said.
McPike disagrees with those who came here illegally. "I understand why they're coming, why they want to be here, which is why I want to be here, but I think doing it the right way, the legal way, is the way to do it."
As for Liz Magallanes, she says she's heard the sharp criticism for what her parents and others did.
"I'd ask them to reach to someone like me, like my parents who are hard working people who are not here to take, we're here to give really to the country. We love this country."
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