Several states, including Texas, are asking a federal judge to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

The program offers deportation protection to foreign born people whose parents brought them to the United States as children. The program has been around for ten years.

"I am relying on people that don't know me, to make a decision for the rest of my life," DACA recipient Andrea Rathbone Ramos said.

Ramos was brought to the U.S. legally with a visa by her parents when she was 9-years-old. She's originally from Mexico and wants to continue contributing to the country she now calls home.

"I mean, it's really hard to plan your life in court case segments," Ramos said.

In a federal court filing in Houston, eight other Republican led states claim the program is illegal and want it gone.

Ramos said they should consider who they're impacting.

"DACA recipients are contributing to this country," Ramos said. "We grow the economy, we contribute, we pay taxes."

Republican lawmakers, like Texas Senator John Cornyn, have shown support for a reform that would give these immigrants a pathway to citizenship, since they were brought to the U.S. illegally as children without a choice of their own.

"The thing that uplifts me is knowing that there are people that understand and believe that DACA recipients like myself and other members of the undocumented community are part of the American society," Ramos said.

McAllen based attorney, Carlos Garcia, represents DACA recipients in federal court against states trying to end the policy.

Garcia believes Republicans who are against the program need a new leg to stand on.

"And the Republicans in Congress who are impeding any kind of immigration reform are making the same arguments to some extent. That's the reason we don't have any immigration reform," Garcia said.

The federal judge, where this latest case was filed, had already ruled DACA was unlawful in 2021 and blocked the approval of new applications, but his order allowed the program to continue to protect people currently enrolled while the case is litigated.

Some legal experts believe a federal court in Houston may come to a decision by late April, and the case could possibly head back to the Supreme Court.