Over the last decade, the 23-year-old Baltimore County resident transformed from a young immigrant who could barely speak English to college graduate saving up for an advanced degree.

She’s had the chance to work at a local health clinic, despite her shaky immigration status. That’s thanks to a 2022 policy change that allowed certain young immigrants like her to work and live without fear of deportation while they wait in a long line for permanent residency.

But earlier this year, President Donald Trump’s administration repealed that policy, leaving scores of young immigrants nationwide who thought they were on a stable path toward a green card fearing they could be deported.

Like many young adults, the woman, who requested anonymity for fear of losing her chance at permanent immigration status, said she used to spend free time with friends. But now, many of them worry about deportation, so she said they don’t go out as much.

“A lot is happening with immigration, no one is safe,” the young woman said.

She is one of more than an estimated 10,000 young people in Maryland waiting in an increasingly long line for a green card as part of a special program for immigrants without permanent legal status who have also been abandoned, abused or neglected by a parent.

The program’s recipients are known as “special immigrant juveniles,” and courts have placed them into the custody of adult caregivers in the U.S. because they believe it’s not in their best interests to return them to their countries of origin.

“No one wants to come here and be a burden, most want to do something meaningful for the country,” said another 23-year-old from Central America, who also has the special immigrant juvenile designation. “We [immigrants] are people too, we deserve the same things.”

Young people with this designation can work while they wait for a green card because of a 2022 policy change that grants them “deferred action.” It is a formal recognition by federal officials that they are not a priority for deportation because they are on a path toward permanent residency.

But President Donald Trump’s administration ended deferred action for these youths earlier this year, leaving them and advocates fearful they could be deported.

The issue is playing out in a New York courtroom, where a judge is expected to rule soon in a class action lawsuit.

At stake are the lives of more than 100,000 young people nationwide — roughly 10% of whom live in Maryland, according to an analysis of 2023 federal data by the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan think tank. Experts say the backlog is likely now larger.

Only New York and California had more cases than Maryland, according to the institute’s analysis.

“We’re living in a time when immigrant youth are being increasingly targeted by the administration,” said Rachel Davidson, director of a coalition of more than 100 nonprofits, law firms and professional associations seeking to end the massive backlog of young people waiting for permanent immigration status.

“The fear and the mental health ramifications are extreme for young people because they’re seeing themselves in everything that’s happening around the country,” she said.

The backlog is compounded by the fact that Congress has only authorized 10,000 yearly green cards for 19 categories of “special immigrants,” which includes this group of young people.

Roughly a decade ago, more children from Mexico and Central America started coming to the U.S. without their parents, and many of them later received the designation. Their ranks far outpaced the number of green cards available, creating the backlog.

Though often referred to as a status, the special immigrant juvenile designation is more like a stepping stone. It offers no tangible benefits on its own, but the Biden administration for the first time allowed recipients to get jobs and avoid deportation while they wait years for their turn to submit a residency application.

Then, in June, the Trump administration reversed that practice, claiming that it was doing so in the “national and public interest.” The policy memo also says that the government can revoke a previous grant of deferred action at any time.

Without it, there’s nothing shielding the designees from deportation, advocates warn.

“The basis of our lawsuit is, essentially, that if the government is going to pull the rug out from under hundreds of thousands of young people who relied on this policy, it has to at least explain why,” said Ellie Norton, senior staff attorney for the National Immigration Project, who is among those representing the plaintiffs in the class action suit against the Trump administration.

In court filings, the government has argued that plaintiffs in the case — nine unnamed special immigrant juveniles — haven’t demonstrated actual harm because their deportation isn’t imminent. Department of Justice attorneys further argued that issuing deferred action and a work permit to them is more privilege than right.

They also point to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services report from July that raises “integrity concerns” about the program. The report claims that the program hasn’t allowed for sufficiently robust vetting, and that even confirmed gang members have received approved petitions. But the report offers limited data to verify the claim.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS and ICE, did not respond to requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.

Even if the New York judge rules against the Trump administration, individual grants of deferred action aren’t permanent. The reprieves will start to expire next spring for the first group of special immigrant juveniles who received them, and renewal is uncertain.

It’s making it difficult for young people like the young woman from South America to plan their futures.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen after that,” she said. “If I apply to [graduate] school and I get a loan, then [deferred action] gets taken away, what am I going to do?”