Julissa Arce had big dreams as a teenager growing up in Texas. She studied hard and earned stellar grades in school. She planned to go to college. But before that, she wanted to have her quinceañera in Mexico, where her parents grew up.
That’s when her mother broke life-changing news: Arce’s visa had expired. She couldn’t go to Mexico, or she wouldn’t be let back into the U.S.
“We all sort of remember the moment that we found out we were undocumented … I didn’t really understand what that meant at that moment,” said Arce in an interview with Know Your Value’s Daniela Pierre-Bravo, who also discovered she was an undocumented immigrant as she was applying to college.
“It wasn’t until I was applying to colleges that I realized that being undocumented meant that there were certain opportunities and certain doors that were going to be closed for me. Regardless of how well I had done in high school, college was still not something that was accessible to me,” Arce added.
Arce lied about her immigration status and climbed the Wall Street ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch. The success, however, was accompanied by debilitating panic attacks, as she feared her status would eventually be found out.
“I didn’t want to tell anyone about my immigration status. And I remember my mom saying, ‘Don’t tell anyone because they could use it against you.’”
Arce is now the bestselling author of “My (Underground) American Dream” and “Someone Like Me,” in which she wrote about her experiences. She’s also the co-founder and chair of the Ascend Educational Fund, which provides scholarships to immigrants regardless of their status, as well as career mentorship and sponsorship. In 2009, she married a U.S. citizen and became naturalized.
“Some of the trauma of being undocumented, I’m still dealing with,” she said.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Arce offered advice to undocumented immigrants looking to live their dreams in the U.S.
Seek sponsors and mentors.
Arce rose in her Wall Street career thanks to a supportive environment.
“I was very fortunate because my team was a little unusual for what teams look like on Wall Street,” said Arce. “My boss was a woman, all the vice presidents on my team were women. So I had a lot of examples and role models to follow of strong women who were doing their thing and making things happen.”









