10.9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

I'm Bethany Van Delt. It's July 3rd, and this is no ordinary episode of the 10 News. This is the 10 News Gets Extra.

On Tuesday, you heard our correspondent Pamela Kirkland talk with Idalia Cantaros.

Adalia is a dreamer and youth activist working to fight for and protect young immigrants here in the United States. She's doing amazing work.

So we wanted to share our full interview with her with you.

The term dreamer comes from legislation called the Dream Act.

It was introduced in 2001, but every one of the 11 versions of the bill

introduced in Congress would provide a legal pathway to citizenship for these young immigrants.

The 2021 version, the Dream and Promise Act, could benefit up to 4.4 million people eligible for

permanent status. Being a DACA recipient means you're

able to get things like a work permit, a driver's license. But as a dreamer who doesn't qualify

for DACA, Idaalia isn't able to get any of those benefits. Now, she's on the front lines of the

fight to push Congress to act on

immigration legislation. Tell me a little bit about yourself. I know you're a student. I think I read

your families from El Salvador, and obviously you're working alongside United We Dream.

So, yeah, I came here to the United States when I was about eight years old. So I do remember my home country, El Salvador, just a little bit. I stayed with my grandparents. And they were great. They were, you know, my second parents. And they treated me like their own. But I was away from my parents for about four years. When you were separated from your parents, you know, leaving El Salvador, what was the goal when you came to the U.S.?

Was it better education or more opportunities?

Yeah.

So for my parents, it was obviously a better life, also away from crime because at that moment where we were living was very uh crime was like

getting worse and me you know as a kid honestly all i wanted was to be with my parents so i wasn't

really thinking you know education or money or any of that at that moment i just wanted you, you know, to be with my family again.

But then now, you know, I realized, yeah, like my parents, you know, if they hadn't came here,

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