(NBC) — An undocumented student at the University of Texas is worried that she could be deported following Donald Trump’s election.
Several months ago in June, Mayte Lara tweeted a photo from her high school graduation that read, “Valedictorian, 4.5 GPA, full tuition paid for at UT, 13 cords/medals, nice legs, oh and I’m undocumented.”
Lara says she does not regret tweeting it. “A lot of good things came out of it I think it it brought attention to something that needs that attention.”
Illegal immigration is still a contentious topic five months after the tweet, and many immigrants are fearful of deportation now that Donald Trump was elected president.
“My first thoughts this morning was OK what am I going to do what’s actually going to happen?” Lara said the morning Trump became president.
“Like I grew up thinking I was American, like I knew I was from Mexico but I didn’t think it was such a big deal,” she said.
The young woman came to the United States at the age of three, and now fears what will happen to her and other undocumented immigrants that have grown up in the U.S.
“Like my whole life I’ve lived with the conversation of OK what’s going to happen if like your dad or I get deported like what’s the plan and we always live with that constant fear.”
Lara’s permit from the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act expires in September 2017, some warn deportations could come sooner.
“Prove us wrong all the people that didn’t want you to be president I think now is the opportunity to prove us wrong and do something and really unite us,” Lara said.