People wait in line to be processed for their New York City municipal ID cards January 14, 2015 at a midtown library in New York. One piece of plastic, but its going to open so many doors for our fellow New Yorkers, New York mayor de Blasio said at the Flushing branch of the Queens Public Library, one of 11 locations where the cards will be available. AFP Credit: Don Emmert/AFP

When Nate and his sister were children, their grandparents brought them to the U.S. from a rural farm town in Belize. They were fleeing domestic violence: Their father was a powerful government official who often threatened them.

“We came over here legally at first,” Nate recalled. “We flew over on a plane and met my mother in Oklahoma, where she already had a home and a job.”

He and his family had visas and passports, and were cleared to set foot on U.S. soil. But when he turned 18, his visa expired and he hadn’t been naturalized. Going back to Belize wasn’t […]