Immigrants who are talented enough to get any kind of job they would want, but whose legal status in the United States is preventing them from working with the best employers, are choosing to start their own companies because they lack the documents needed to work for American firms, according to the Los Angeles Times. Despite there being strict laws against the hiring of undocumented workers, there are none when it comes to being an entrepreneur.
Carla Chavarria came to Arizona from Mexico with her mother at just seven years of age, going to school and working hard because she believed that her efforts would one day pay off, possibly in the form of college and then a good job. “We’re taught as young kids that this is the land of opportunity,” Chavarria says. “They told me ‘You could be anything you want to be if you work hard, you’re a good person, you obey your parents and go to school.’”
Chavarria wanted to attend college in order to become a graphic designer, but was prevented by lack of funds and when she started looking for methods of making money, she discovered she was able to create her own limited liability company rather than work for someone else and it was not necessary to have US citizenship to do so.
Chavarria is participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, a two-year program that stops undocumented immigrants from being deported.