Two weeks before Daniel Alejandro Leon’s wedding, he humbly asked anyone willing to listen for a little help.

For many, getting married is a marker in time, a new chapter of possibilities and memories. This was especially so for Leon: He found the person he wants to spend the rest of his life with. 

Leon is restricted from legally getting married to his partner in 36 states because he is gay. But luckily for him, he lives in New York where same-sex marriage has been legal for over two years. 

“I am getting married to the love of my life,” said Leon.

Weddings can be expensive, but this isn’t the reason he has reached out for donations at gofundme.com. Leon is also, as he calls it, an "undocumented" immigrant for over 18 years and can't legally earn income in the U.S.

“I have to survive for these next couple months. I have to pay rent just like any other graduate,” said Leon.

After a June decision overturned the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), President Obama directed his staff to adjust laws where marriage was concerned. On the immigration front, this meant a U.S. citizen in a same-sex marriage could now file a petition to begin a naturalization process for his or her spouse. 

This was a major breakthrough for Leon and his partner, encouraging them to move up their wedding plans. Leon is now asking for donations to help him cover the next few months until he can legally earn income.

But how does someone like Leon find himself in such a predicament?

Leon and his mother overstayed their visas when he was five years old. Leon said he didn’t quite understand what it meant to be "undocumented" and recalled how his mother would behave at times.

“Every time we saw a security guard or the police would come by, she would pull me a little closer,” said Leon.

His mother was 50 years old when they moved from Venezuela to the U.S. She cleaned bathrooms and sewed clothes to support them. Still, it wasn’t always enough.

“I remember that there would be nights that I was like, ‘Why aren’t you eating mommy?’ And she would say 'I’m fine, I ate before you came.’ Or, ‘I’m going to eat later,’” said Leon. “The reality is that there just wasn’t, even with three jobs, enough to put food on our table.”

It wouldn’t be until high school that he realized the implications of his residency status in the U.S. During his senior year, Leon was awarded full scholarships to five universities. He had to turn them down because his residency status barred him from receiving any aid.

“I became very depressed. All the schools told me I couldn’t go,” said Leon.

"Daniel earned each acceptance letter and scholarship with his intelligence, dedication, work ethic and creativity," said Kat Robinson, Southwest Regional Chair for the Jack Kent Cooke Scholar Association Executive Board. "Yet for reasons outside Daniel's control, his achievements were crushed."

He knew there had to be another way. Leon decided he would go to community college instead and hoped a petition for permanent residency that his mother filed a decade earlier would be approved before he needed to transfer.

It wasn’t.

Leon called 93 scholarship programs, asking if they would accept an application from an "undocumented" immigrant. Only three said they would.

In the meantime, his community college found out about his "undocumented" status and pulled their nomination, a requirement to accept an award if it was granted.

Leon fought hard with the leaders of Seminole State College of Florida, determined to obtain a scholarship. He reasoned that if a scholarship organization didn’t care he was "undocumented," the community college shouldn’t get in the way.

He won.

At his graduation ceremony, Leon was presented with a scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, which would pay for him to complete his bachelors degree and potentially a masters degree if he chose to pursue it. He was awarded $30,000 per year for up to three years of undergraduate education and $50,000 toward graduate school. 

Although the scholarship was extensive, Leon still didn't have enough to cover housing while completing his bachelor's. On his first day of class at American University, Leon didn't have a home to go to. 

"I called my mom and I told her, 'I don't know where I'm sleeping tonight,'" said Leon. He said he typically didn't share these things with his mother until he had already found a resolution so he could spare her any heartache. However this time, he decided he needed to tell his mother. She immediately told him to come home to Florida so she could care for him. Leon knew that wasn't an option.

"I worked my ass off to get here, and if I have to sleep on a bench every single day and go to class, I will," said Leon to his mother through sobs. 

Luckily, a fellow Jack Kent Cooke Scholar was able to house him that semester, and a combination of stipends and good friends helped him the rest of the way. Leon went on to complete his BA in international relations with an emphasis in race relations at American University. While there, he became the first "undocumented" immigrant to intern at the William J. Clinton Foundation.

"Daniel found a new pathway. This is what I find so amazing about Daniel," said Robinson. "He's been selected for countless prestigious internships which require long hours for bare stipends. Make no mistake. Daniel has worked his entire life."

After graduating, however, Leon was still "undocumented" and couldn’t legally be hired for pay. Instead he applied for an internship at GlobalGrind.com. After his first day, President of Global Grind Michael Skolnik told him he had the skills to be a hired employee rather than an intern.

For the past several months, Leon has been working at his dream job but without pay. He got married Saturday and hopes the petition his spouse filed for him to become a permanent resident through marriage will be processed quickly. Still, Leon needs money to pay expenses in the meantime.

Leon started a campaign to raise $5,500 dollars to cover every day expenses like food and rent until he can be paid legally. In just four days, he was able to raise $2,288 dollars and is now at 70 percent of his goal.

 

Follow Daniel Alejandro Leon Davis's story and help him reach his goal here.

Reach Staff Reporter Tahsin Hyder here; and follow her here.