Republican House leaders expect to vote on two immigration bills next week that could give so called "Dreamers" permanent legal status in this country.

Even if they pass, the measures would still need to get through the Senate and that doesn't sound very promising. The Senate rejected three such measures in February, including one supported by the White House.

Roughly 33,000 New York State residents are among nearly 700,000 "Dreamers" in the country who watch and wait, hopeful and skeptical, many hardened a bit by their struggle.

"I do clearly remember going through immigration on the car," Zuleima Dominguez told NY1, "the immigration agent going with the lamp on the car, putting the light on our faces."

Dominguez remembers being smuggled over the Mexican border. Her parents paid strangers to pretend she was theirs when she was just seven years old.

Javeria Ahmed was seven months old when her parents brought her here from Pakistan and overstayed their tourist visa.

"We ended up in immigration court," Javeria explained. "My parents sat me down and told me the whole thing. It was really confusing."

In 2012, they both applied for protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, created by President Obama.

It allows undocumented immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children the right to work or study without fear of deportation.

"Opportunities came like falling from the sky, I guess," Zuleima said.

But now their futures are even more uncertain.

President Donald Trump ended DACA on March 5, and Congress has been unable to agree on how to renew it.

The courts are keeping it in place for now, saying President Trump's legal justification for shutting it down was unlawful and unexplained.

"He [President Trump] made my life really tough for a while," Javeria said.

Both are hoping for careers that would help other immigrants in similar situations.

Javeria just graduated from Cardozo Law School and said, "It's going to make me a stronger advocate for these people because I've been there and I know it makes me want to fight so hard and not give up."

Zuleima works full time cleaning a shelter and is a senior at Hunter College. She says she wants to give back to her community.

"Maybe work with undocumented immigrants that also identify as queer or part of the LGBTQ community," she said.

Her aspirations though are even bigger.

"Maybe one day, who knows, run for office one day when I get my papers," Zuleima said.

That seems even further from reality now: In a new development, NBC News is reporting that Trump's Justice Department now wants a federal court in Texas to declare DACA illegal. That would conflict with three other federal rulings and could send the case the Supreme Court.