Rep. Connolly to bring Annandale High School student to State of the Union speech

Nicolle Uria on the volleyball court.

When President Trump delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Annandale High School senior Nicolle Uria will be in the audience as a guest of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.).

Uria is a bright, articulate student involved in many activities at AHS and the community and has big plans for college and a career in journalism. But all that could be jeopardized by Trump’s announcement in September to terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Uria is a “Dreamer” who was brought to the United States by her Bolivian parents when she was just a year old. DACA allows youths brought to the U.S. by undocumented parents to apply for a driver’s license, work permit, and in some cases, in-state tuition at colleges. The termination of DACA puts those youths at risk of deportation.

“This country is all she has ever known, and through her volunteer work, she has made our community better,” Connolly says. “She and so many other Dreamers are exactly the young people we don’t want to turn away from our country. They are what makes America such a great nation.”

Uria’s DACA status will expire next year, and it’s uncertain whether it can be extended. A ruling by a federal judge in California found Trump’s decision to terminate DACA unconstitutional, and the Administration has asked the Supreme Court to rule on the issue. Meanwhile immigration advocates continue to seek congressional action to make DACA permanent.

Connolly, a strong supporter of DACA, decided to invite Uria after reading an inspiring story about her in the Washington Post.

At AHS, Uria is president of the Hispanic Leadership Club; on the volleyball, gymnastics, and track teams; does volunteer work with the Key Club; is a member of Future Business Leaders of America; serves as entertainment editor at the A-Blast student newspaper; helps other students as a peer tutor; and tutors kindergartners at North Springfield Elementary School.

She is also active in the Dream Project, an Arlington-based organization that helps immigrant students in Northern Virginia apply to college.

Uria didn’t know her parents were undocumented until she was 15. “Up until then, I thought everything was pretty normal,” she says. When she suspected they were facing financial and emotional problems and wouldn’t let her apply for a learner’s permit, she contronted them, and they finally told her the truth: They had come to the United States with work visas but stayed here after their visas expired.

“After that, things really changed for me a lot,” Uria says.

Before, she ignored students at AHS in English for Speakers of Other Languages classes. “I never really spoke to them. I didn’t know their situation,” she says. “After finding out I was undocumented, I could relate to their problems. I felt their pain and wanted to help them.”

She worries about being deported and “losing all my friends and the teachers who helped me,” she says. If she were to go to Bolivia, a place she’s never been, she wouldn’t be able to come back to the United States.

She hopes to attend James Madison University, her first choice, but also applied to Virginia Commonwealth University, Mary Washington University, and Temple University. She wants to major in journalism and one day start her own media company.

“I’m very honored to be Congressman Connolly’s guest at the State of the Union,” she says, “and I’m really excited to be a voice for the 800,000 Dreamers waiting to hear positive news.”