Dahlia Doe* is one of more than 6,000 people who will lose their legal status in the US on Friday, after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced back in September the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Syrians.
Impacted Syrians will no longer be legally allowed to reside and work in the country from Saturday onwards, and will be subject to detention and possible removal proceedings.
After the government announced its plans, Dahlia had just two months to figure out her future while looking at packing up the life she had built for herself.
She has been in the US for ten years now, having arrived as a student from a country in the Middle East, where she lacked citizenship status. To preserve anonymity, Dahlia did not want to share which country she was living in before the US.
Her choices are stark: be potentially deported to Syria, a country she was not born in and has never lived in, or fight to stay in the one where she has friends, family and community.
