US Dreamers ‘see more opportunity’ in return to Mexico

Kevin Bueno always dreamt of going to college in the United States.

However, Bueno – who was born in Mexico, moved to the US at age four and grew up in the state of Colorado – is undocumented. 

Nearly 20 years after arriving in the US, he felt his options to study there were exhausted. So he left, choosing to pursue a business degree at the University of Monterrey, in northern Mexico, instead.

“I’ve done well as a student, as a citizen. I’ve paid taxes. I’m not a criminal, and they’re trying to treat you like a criminal. So I was like, maybe it’s not for me,” Bueno told Al Jazeera.

Bueno is among the so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought to the US as children and do not hold legal status.

Under his tenure as US president, Barack Obama passed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals scheme, better known as DACA, a programme which allowed undocumented young people to work, study and live in the country without fear of deportation.

But the clock is ticking on the scheme after US President Donald Trump announced plans to phase out DACA last year.

About 800,000 people may be affected by the programme’s suspension.

Al Jazeera’s Julia Galiano, reporting from Monterrey, Mexico, said institutions in Mexico are targeting the Dreamers.

They hope that by offering them educational and professional opportunities, they will move back across the border.

The return is not easy, but for Bueno, life in Mexico has been a positive surprise so far.

“I’m honestly living better than I was in the [US] now, and I see more opportunity,” he said.