UT grad's family followed immigration laws. Now she may be forced to self-deport due to visa backlog.

For Athulya Rajakumar and her mom, this time of year is usually a season for rest and celebration: shopping, cooking, viewing Christmas lights. But Rajakumar hasn't exactly been in the holiday spirit. It could be her last Christmas at home in the United States. Rajakumar came to the U.S. under her mother's visa. Now, after nearly two decades, the 23-year-old University of Texas graduate may have to deport herself to India because she has aged out of visa protections afforded to specialized visa holders. Her mother, who she lives with in Dallas, has been trying to offer some comfort. “Most of the day she just spends trying to console me, crying,” said Rajakumar.

Even though she and her mother came to the U.S. legally, Rajakumar falls into a growing category of young people known as “documented dreamers.” Like undocumented “dreamers,” she came with her parents to the U.S. as a child. But, unlike her undocumented peers and their parents, she and her mother had visas and have stayed up-to-date on their immigration paperwork. “We followed the rules,” said Rajakumar, who left India as a young child. “The only reason I'm in this position is because I don't want to break the rules.” Thousands of kids face similar fates each year: They must either self-deport or find temporary visas through their work or school, according to estimates from the libertarian Cato Institute. Elected officials on both sides of the aisle support revising immigration laws to support these applicants, but partisan gridlock has prevented a solution. The predicament Rajakumar and other documented dreamers face is a result of out-of-date laws that fail to reflect labor needs and current immigration flows, according to experts and lawmakers. Foreign-born children of skilled foreign workers lose protection under their parents' work visas once they turn 21. If they can’t secure another type of visa for themselves, they cannot legally remain in the U.S.