For only the second time since the program’s creation in 2012, beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program met with a U.S. president in the Oval Office. The six DACA recipients met with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday to share their stories and continue pressing for permanent legislative relief for undocumented communities.

Maria Praeli, DACA recipient and government relations manager for immigration reform advocacy group FWD.us, said in a statement received by Daily Kos following the meeting that “[t]o know that the President of the United States wants to hear our stories and understand what our lives are like, and how we and our families have struggled with the broken immigration system, is deeply meaningful.”

While the Biden administration has announced a federal rule that protects DACA following years of attacks by the previous administration (and its subsequent, months-long refusal to recognize the Supreme Court’s decision finding it had unlawfully terminated the program), The Washington Post reports that the DACA recipients “spoke candidly to Biden about their concerns,” including the Texas court that yet again threatens the policy.

Federal Judge Andrew Hanen has not yet issued his ruling, but he’s made no secret of the fact that he believes DACA is unlawful. That’s why Republicans, led by the very corrupt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, handpicked him. “[O]ur stability is threatened still today by the pending decision of a judge who sits in a courtroom in Texas, determining our fate,” Praeli said. 

“Our lives have been in limbo for far too long,” she continued. “Every day that goes by without Congress passing permanent legislative protections—for Dreamers and DACA recipients like me, TPS holders, farmworkers, and the entire undocumented population—is a day that hurts all of us. It is incredibly painful for our individual lives, for our families who live in fear of being separated from our loved ones, and for our country every day that Congress fails to act.”

As previously noted, in his first address to Congress last month, Biden expressed support for legalization legislation that has already passed the House with bipartisan votes, including one bill that puts undocumented youth on a path to citizenship. “Congress needs to pass legislation this year to finally secure protection for Dreamers, the young people who have only known America as their home,” Biden said during his address.

Roughly 700,000 young immigrants are currently protected by the policy, including over 100,000 in Texas. Praeli said following the Oval Office meeting on Friday that the “past four years have made painfully clear how tenuous that protection is: our futures were threatened by the people who worked in this very building, by the person who sat in his chair.” 

Undocumented communities hope this is the year that permanent relief is finally passed by the Congress. In a statement received by Daily Kos, the We Are Home campaign said that hundreds of advocates and groups are set to carry out dozens of meetings with legislators on Tuesday to continue pressing for reform. “I’m encouraged that our meeting with President Biden today made even clearer the incredibly high stakes of permanently protecting immigrants from deportation—and I believe he’ll do everything he can to make urgent action possible,” Praeli said.