Dreamers across the Rio Grande Valley are reacting to the latest ruling by a federal judge deeming an Obama-era program that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation illegal.

Though the order made Friday by U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen does not affect those already covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), it does prevent any Dreamer from applying.

On Saturday, President Joe Biden announced that the Justice Department intends to appeal the ruling, adding that the decision was "deeply disappointing."

For Dreamer Diego Corzo, the U.S. is home, and when former President Obama issued the executive order in 2012 creating the DACA program, Corzo says he felt a sense of relief.

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But since then, Corzo, along with thousands of other Dreamers, have dealt with the emotional rollercoaster that's followed DACA for nearly a decade.

"A lot of people are in fear right now," Immigration Attorney at La Union Del Pueblo Entero Jorge De La Fuente said. "They're unsure of what's going to happen to them. We here at LUPE have already filed thousands of initial DACA applications, so we have received many calls, many questions."

In September 2017, the Trump administration announced it was ending the program. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the administration had not ended the program properly, allowing Dreamers to apply for DACA once again.

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De La Fuente said LUPE has since filed nearly 1,000 DACA applications for Dreamers in the Rio Grande Valley. While they're back to the waiting game, Corzo said he remains hopeful that Congress will pass a path to citizenship for Dreams like him one day.