Four students who were brought to the United States by their families when they were young and are still undocumented are walking 1,500 miles from their homes in Miami, Fla. to Washington, D.C., to ask for immigration reform. Carlos Roa, 22, is one of the five Trail of Dreams walkers who are calling for the implementation of The Dream Act, federal legislation that would give undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children a pathway to citizenship after completing college. It would also give them access to private loans, to help pay for their university education. Carlos arrived in the United States at the age of 2 and has been living here for 20 years without documents.

How did you and your family come to live in the United States?

My grandfather was living in New York. He was a banquet hall manager at the New York Hilton and was very successful. When he got sick, my father, who was an only child, decided to come to the United States from Venezuela to take care of him.

My grandfather petitioned for my father to get citizenship during this visit, but then my grandfather passed away. My father inherited some money, property and stocks from his father, so he decided to stay. He really wanted his children to be educated here, so he brought my mother, my older sister and myself to the United States from Caracas, Venezuela. I was 2 years old.

Were your parents able to work here?

In Venezuela, my father worked for the Polar Beer Company, and my mother was a housewife. When he came here, he decided to invest his inheritance to open a business in Miami. He wanted to sell industrial products to Venezuela, but his business was ...