An Uncertain Future for Documented Dreamers

On a Thursday morning in early February, Kartik Sivakumar realized that he would have to leave America. He was sitting in his dorm room, at the University of Iowa, where he was a senior majoring in neuroscience. He was also a resident adviser, a leader of the university's hospital student-volunteer corps, and an organizer of the Indian Student Alliance's annual dance competition. Sivakumar had lived in Iowa for half his life. That morning, he received an e-mail from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (U.S.C.I.S.), saying that action had been taken on his change-of-status application for a student visa.