Mario Tama/Getty Images

Undocumented immigrant Oscar Rodriguez, right, originally from Mexico, watches with Yenny Quispe, center, who is from Peru and recently received her Green Card, during a watch party for President Barack Obama's speech on immigration on Jan. 29, 2013 in New York City.

The debate over how to deal with the approximately 11 million individuals living in the United States without authorization - including the argument over whether to call them “illegal” or “undocumented” - is perhaps the most politically tricky aspect of the sprawling immigration policy overhaul effort.

So who are the 11 million? And how do we know how many there are?

It’s difficult to count people who by definition are unlikely to disclose their actual immigration status to the government, so demographers use what’s called the “residual method” to determine about how many undocumented individuals are in the country.

Starting with Census Bureau data, the Pew Hispanic Center examines the total number of foreign-born individuals in the United States and subtracts those whose records or characteristics indicate they are here legally as naturalized citizens, Green Card holders, residents on temporary visas, or refugees.

“For those who say they are not a U.S. citizen and that they are foreign-born, we can, by looking at other characteristics -- like how long they have lived in the country and what job they hold -- determine whether the person is in the country legally or not,” says Mark Lopez, the associate director at the Pew Hispanic Center.  

The “residual” means those who are left over.

Census data tends to under-represent certain groups, so Pew and others also try to fill in the gaps by adjusting for Census under-counts. Demographers also factor in departure data like the number of deportations and apprehensions at the border.

Based on those demographic calculations, Pew estimated in 2011 that there are 11.1 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States.

That number is statistically unchanged from estimates in 2010 and 2009, but has dropped significantly since 2007, when it spiked at 12 million.

Also in 2011, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Immigration Statistics placed the number at 11.5 million, slightly higher than the Pew study. 

Another study by former U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service demographer Robert Warren and University of Minnesota professor John Robert Warren pegged the total at around 11.7 million in January 2010. But all three data sets found a significant reduction in the population over the past decade.

The Warren study concluded that, between 1990 and 2009, an estimated 7.5 million unauthorized immigrants left that population, either because they gained legal status, were removed by DHS, left voluntarily, or died.

Analysts attribute much of the decline since 2007 to the recession, particularly the burst of the U.S. housing bubble.  

“The Great Recession had a big impact, particularly on unauthorized immigrant workers, many of whom were in construction,” Lopez notes. “So, many of them may have returned home.”

Advocates for undocumented immigrants emphasize that, while the stereotype of the “illegal Mexican construction worker” has some basis in reality, that’s hardly the whole picture of the population.

According to DHS, while younger undocumented immigrants are more likely to be male, women make up 47 percent of the total undocumented population and a majority of those older than 45.

And, while about 1.6 million undocumented immigrants have arrived in the United States since 2005, a majority of them -- 56 percent -- first came to the country before 2000.

(While it is difficult to calculate how many of those undocumented immigrants entered the country via illegal border crossing versus how many came on a visa that expired, Pew estimated in 2006 that about 45 percent of new undocumented immigrants were in the latter category.)

Larry Downing / Reuters

Latinos protest in favor of comprehensive immigration reform on the West side of Capitol Hill in Washington, April 10, 2013.

Pew hasn’t done a deep data dive on the 2011 data, but its in-depth analysis of 2010 numbers showed that Mexicans made up 58 percent of the undocumented population. Individuals from other Latin American nations account for another 23 percent, and Asians for 11 percent.

Those numbers are similar to the findings from DHS, which found that individuals born in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador made up a combined 70 percent of the undocumented population in 2011.

While each data set uses slightly different methodology and yields slightly different estimates, analysts say the most important data point for public policy isn’t the overall number of undocumented immigrants, but the trends that show a decrease in the population overall.

"There may be some fluctuation in the numbers but what’s most important are the trends,” says Jeanne Batalova, a demographer at the Migration Policy Institute. “The number definitely is not growing as fast as it used to be.”

John Moore / Getty Images file

A woman takes the oath of allegiance during a naturalization ceremony in Newark, N.J., in January.

This is the first story in NBC News’ series “Immigration Nation,” an in-depth examination of immigration in America.

The talk about reforming the American immigration system has focused on getting 11 million undocumented workers on the path to citizenship. It’s a simple idea that obscures a thorny truth.

There is no single path to citizenship. There are hundreds.

Which path you take can depend on who your relatives are, whether you are safe in your homeland or how good you are at your job — in the case of one Canadian burlesque dancer, whether you can prove that you twirl your tassels in a truly unique way.

Which path you take can depend on where you come from and how you’re trying to get here, on the whims of the federal government and on the laws of supply and demand.

You can set out on a path through your family or your job, as most immigrants do — hitching your hopes to a citizen brother or sister, or to an employer willing to be a sponsor.

You can take up arms for what you hope will one day be your country. Or you can win the lottery: Up to 55,000 spots each year go to people who line up for hours in far-flung places like Bangladesh or Kazakhstan to enter a drawing and try their luck at a new life.

So what happens once you choose your path? There are at least 4.4 million people whose first-step visa petitions have been approved and are waiting for a green card that would grant them permanent residency, the vast majority trying to enter with help from relatives in the United States, according to the State Department.

But that hardly means the path to citizenship is clear. Any number of obstacles can block the way. You can fall in love with an American citizen and move to a different path. You can be kicked off the path. Or the path can shift on you.

Slideshow: Your newest fellow Americans

John Moore / Getty Images

Nearly 700,000 immigrants take the step to U.S. citizenship each year. Meet some of those who have just become part of that select group: Americans.

Launch slideshow

That is what happened to Sergio Garcia of Mexico, who has been waiting 19 years.

His father, a retired California farm worker, sponsored him for an immigration visa in 1994. At that point, the father had a green card, and the son had crossed the border without documentation, in the back of a truck.

For Garcia, Nov. 18, 1994, is what is known in the system as a priority date. To would-be immigrants, it means everything. When enough of the backlog has been cleared and your date comes up, you can take the final steps toward a green card.

More than a decade ago, enough of the backlog had been cleared for Mexicans in his immigration category that the priority date was Nov. 12, 1994 — just six days from his date.

Then the line jumped back three years, as it can when immigration officials work through a glut of cases. Since then, on the 15th of each month, Garcia has logged on to a State Department website to read the latest visa bulletin, to see whether he is any closer.

Garcia said that if he had known at the beginning that it would take two decades to get his green card, not the three to five years he was told, then he would have returned to Mexico.

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“It’s probably been a month or two since I last ended up crying, because sometimes this life does get to you,” he said. “It’s not living, it’s surviving.”

The United States admits up to 675,000 immigrants legally each year, including up to 480,000 who are related to American citizens but are not spouses, minor children or parents, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

That figure includes 47,250 slots for each of the countries with the highest demand, including Mexico, the Philippines and India. Demand from these places far outstrips the supply of immigration slots.

From Mexico alone, the theoretical line is 1.3 million people long. If you are emigrating from the Philippines through a brother or sister who is a U.S. citizen, and you are getting your green card today, you got “in line” about the time the Berlin Wall came down.

And the green card is only the first step, entitling you to a five-year wait for full citizenship. In the interim, you can be rejected for a variety of reasons, including bounced checks, clerical errors on your application or adultery.

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“The system is just way too complicated,” said Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer from Alaska who has testified before Congress on the issue. “It’s so complicated and difficult that people can’t absorb it. They think: There’s no way I can navigate that.”

You can pay to get on a path: 10,000 visas — and ultimately green cards — are reserved for foreign nationals who invest at least $500,000 in an American business, though the program has never reached that number in the two decades it has existed.

Some paths are shorter than others. Qualified immigrants who have temporary visas can join the military and become naturalized citizens as soon as the end of basic training. President George W. Bush expedited the military path after the Sept. 11 attacks.

And about one in 10 people legally admitted to this country every year is granted entry because of asylum or refugee status, and a one-year path to a green card, after proving a legitimate fear of persecution at home.

That happened to Parvaneh Vahidmanesh, who was in the United States on a visa when Iran was engulfed by violent protests after the disputed 2009 presidential election.

In an open letter in The Wall Street Journal addressed to Iran’s supreme leader, Vahidmanesh demanded to know why a bullet was the answer to peaceful cries of opposition. The United States deemed it too dangerous for her to return home.

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Click the graphic for a larger version (new window).

Vahidmanesh applied for asylum after the Journal letter was published, was granted asylum in September 2009, got a green card a year later and is waiting to become a citizen.

She said that she feels accepted in the United States, never like a foreigner or even a guest.

“Now, I have a future,” she said. “Most important thing is freedom. I just feel freedom with all of my self here in the U.S. In Iran, I never felt that I am a free person.”

The immigration reform plan being devised in Washington, chiefly by four senators from each party, is expected to provide a means for the estimated 11 million who entered the United States illegally eventually to become citizens.

Precisely how is far from clear, as is whether the plan would include an unspecified “trigger” requiring that the U.S.-Mexican border is declared secure before any citizenship program for the undocumented can begin.

It is also expected to include some kind of guest-worker program allowing low-skilled workers to remain in the United States.

Supporters of tighter immigration controls have concerns about both elements, but most acknowledge that the country needs far more clarity on who should and should not be eligible to become an American citizen.

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters file

Candidates wave U.S. flags during a naturalization ceremony to become citizens in Los Angeles in February.

Some advocates of a more permissive immigration system say that the central problem is that the United States does not issue nearly enough visas.

Even if the United States stopped approving new requests for family-based immigration visas today, it would take 19 years to clear the backlog of people waiting to join a relative in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research center.

“We haven’t changed our legal immigration numbers since 1990,” said Mary Giovagnoli, director of the Immigration Policy Center, part of a Washington group that supports immigration. “Think about the cellphone that they were carrying in ‘The Wedding Singer.’ Now think about your iPhone today.”

As Garcia waits for his priority date, his shot at citizenship, he figures there is no turning back. As strange is it may sound, he said, he believes that his father was right to encourage him to embark on the path to citizenship.

“I still think this country is a great country, and I think it will give me, in the end, a better future than I could have had in Mexico,” he said. “I still truly believe in the American dream.”

Petra Cahill, Tracy Connor and Miranda Leitsinger of NBC News contributed to this report.

Days after California’s governor vetoed a bill that would have let local authorities ignore federal requests to hold undocumented immigrants for possible deportation, the Los Angeles police chief has decided he won’t comply with the requests in low-level cases.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday that he had to craft a program that would serve his community.

"It strikes me as somebody who runs a police department that is 45 percent Hispanic and polices a city that is at least that, that we need to build trust in these communities and we need to build cooperation or we won't be prepared," the Los Angeles Times quoted Beck as saying.

Out of 105,000 annual arrests, the Los Angeles police get about 3,400 requests, known as detainers or holds, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, The Los Angeles Daily News reported.  The holds are part of the Secure Communities program, in which the FBI shares fingerprints of those arrested with federal immigration authorities, who determine if the persons are legally in the U.S. or if they can be deported due to a criminal conviction.

Calif. governor vetoes bill that allowed towns to release undocumented immigrants

Immigration advocates say the holds cast a wide dragnet that has ensnared even those who had committed minor crimes or no offenses at all. But ICE has said the program was instrumental in helping enforce immigration laws and in getting violent offenders off the streets.

Nick Ut / AP file

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck: "Community trust is extremely important. It's my intent that we gain that trust back."

“The LAPD is proposing to no longer grant an ICE detainer request without first reviewing the seriousness of the offense for which the person is being held as well as their prior arrest history and gang involvement,” according to an LAPD statement.

The department was developing a list of criminal offenses, such as public nuisance and low-grade misdemeanors, that in its view don’t meet the program's intended purpose.

Under the LAPD’s new proposal, those arrested for low-grade misdemeanors won’t be held for ICE unless the person had a prior felony arrest or was a documented gang member. The person also won't be held without additional information from ICE. The police will still honor detention requests on felony and high-grade misdemeanor arrests.

About 400 ICE requests annually could be ignored under the new policy, Beck said, adding that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich had informed him that police could legally refuse to honor ICE detainer requests, according to local media reports.

US immigration chief: Same-sex ties are family ties

Beck said he believes in some cases, the detentions have unnecessarily split up families, Reuters reported.

"Community trust is extremely important," he said. "It's my intent that we gain that trust back."

'No papers, no fear': Undocumented immigrants declare themselves on bus tour

Late Sunday, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the Trust Act, controversial legislation similar to what Beck has opted to do. Beck said his new rules, which he hopes to implement by Jan. 1, were in the works before the governor’s veto, the Daily News reported.

In his veto message, Brown said he could not sign the bill because under it, “local officers would be prohibited from complying with an immigration detainer unless the person arrested was charged with, or has been previously convicted of, a serious or violent felony.

“Unfortunately, the list of offenses codified in the bill is fatally flawed because it omits many serious crimes,” he said, adding that he would work with lawmakers to improve the legislation.

Several counties and cities have enacted ordinances that limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, The New York Times has reported.

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ICE says it prioritizes the deportation of those who present the most significant threats to public safety, and that it has deported more than 147,400 convicted criminal undocumented immigrants, including more than 54,200 individuals convicted of violent offenses such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children, under the program.

“Over the past three and half years, ICE has been dedicated to implementing smart, effective reforms to the immigration system that allow it to focus its resources on criminals, recent border crossers and repeat immigration law violators,” ICE Deputy Press Secretary Gillian Christensen said Friday in a statement to NBC News. “The federal government alone sets these priorities and places detainers on individuals arrested on criminal charges to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens and other priority individuals are not released from prisons and jails into our communities.”

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Damian Dovarganes / AP file

High school student Claudia Rueda, 17, center, is arrested by Los Angeles Police officers for failing to disperse, as protesters blocked the intersection of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Twin Tower Correctional Facility in Los Angeles Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012. Students demanded the passage of Assembly Bill 1081, also known as the Trust Act.

California’s governor has vetoed a bill that would have allowed police and sheriffs to free undocumented immigrants from custody once they became eligible for release even if federal immigration authorities had asked to hold them for possible deportation proceedings.

Immigration advocates say the federal requests, known as detainers or holds, cast a wide dragnet that has ensnared even those who had committed minor crimes or no offenses at all. But Immigration and Customs Enforcement had said the program was instrumental in helping enforce immigration laws and in getting violent offenders off the streets.

In his veto message late Sunday, Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. said he could not sign the bill because under it, “local officers would be prohibited from complying with an immigration detainer unless the person arrested was charged with, or has been previously convicted of, a serious or violent felony.

“Unfortunately, the list of offenses codified in the bill is fatally flawed because it omits many serious crimes,” he said. “For example, the bill would bar local cooperation  even when the person arrested has been convicted of certain crimes involving child abuse, drug trafficking, selling weapons, using children to sell drugs, or gangs. I believe it's unwise to interfere with a sheriffs discretion  to comply with a detainer issued for people with these kinds of troubling criminal records.”

Brown noted he would work with lawmakers to improve the legislation and said undocumented immigrants “play a major role in California's economy, with many performing low-wage jobs that others don't want.

“Comprehensive immigration reform -- including a path to citizenship -- would provide tremendous economic benefits and is long overdue,” he wrote. “Until we have immigration reform, federal agents shouldn’t try to coerce local law enforcement officers into detaining people who’ve been picked up for minor offenses and pose no reasonable threat to their community.”

Immigration activists denounced Brown’s veto, comparing it to Arizona’s controversial immigration law that includes a provision forcing those stopped by police to show their immigration papers. 

"By vetoing the Trust Act Governor Brown has failed California's immigrant communities, imperiling civil rights and leaving us all less safe. The President's disastrous Secure Communities program is replicating Arizona's model of immigration enforcement nationally, causing a human rights crisis. Immigration and Customs Enforcement strong-armed the Governor to defend its deportation quota instead of defending Californian's rights,” Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said in a statement. “On this sad day, we renew our commitment to fight to keep our families together despite the Governor and the President's insistence on seeing them torn apart."

Alvarado was referring to ICE’s “Secure Communities” program, under which the FBI shares fingerprints of those arrested with federal immigration authorities who check to see if the person is not legally in the U.S. or if they can be deported due to a criminal conviction.

ICE says it prioritizes the deportation of those who present the most significant threats to public safety, and that it has deported more than 147,400 convicted criminal undocumented immigrants, including more than 54,200 individuals convicted of violent offenses such as murder, rape and the sexual abuse of children, under the program. 

In a statement last week, ICE Deputy Press Secretary Gillian Christensen said the agency didn’t comment on pending state legislation.

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“The identification and removal of criminal offenders is ICE’s highest priority and over the past three and half years, ICE has been dedicated to implementing smart, effective reforms to the immigration system that allow it to focus its resources on priority individuals,” she wrote in a statement, noting that the Department of Homeland Security would continue to exercise prosecutorial discretion for certain people who came to the U.S. as children and other individuals who were “low priorities.”

“The federal government alone sets these priorities and places detainers on individuals arrested on criminal charges to ensure that dangerous criminal aliens and other priority individuals are not released from prisons and jails into our communities,” she added.

Several counties and cities have enacted ordinances that limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, The New York Times has reported.

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said late Monday that the California State Sheriff's Association, which had opposed the bill, called his office on Monday to negotiate on the issue, which he took as a "good sign."

"Governors come and go, you know, but this issue is more than a political issue, it is a movement," he said.

Some immigration rights' activists took Brown to task for also vetoing a bill requiring the creation of state regulations governing the working conditions of domestic workers but instead signing off on legislation that would allow some undocumented youth to get a driver's license.

It is intended for those who qualify for the federal government's deferred action policy, which provides a two-year work permit and a reprieve from deportation for those who were brought to the U.S. as children. There are some 300,000 youth in California who are currently eligible for the policy, according to the Immigration Policy Center.

“Brown waited until the 11^th hour of his legislative cycle to … veto the most important and impactful bills that would have (brought) tremendous relief for the immigrant community in California and instead decided to sign a very symbolic and hollow bill,” Carlos Amador, of immigrant rights' group Dream Team Los Angeles, told NBC News by phone.

But Assemblymember Gilbert Cedillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles who introduced the driver’s license bill, said he’d received many messages from those who were elated by the passage of the law.

“We don’t want this to be a decision made by a director of DMV or made by a judge. But we want this to be a matter of right, of duty and obligation,” he told NBC News. “We made it certain …we’re not going to leave this to chance.”

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Maria Cruz Ramirez, one of several undocumented immigrants traveling across the country on the "undocubus," protests during a briefing on the civil rights effects of state immigrations law held by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Birmingham, Ala., on August 17, 2012.

Birmingham, Ala. -- Maria Cruz Ramirez thrust up a small banner reading “undocumented,” interrupting a hearing on strict state immigration laws to share the impact that the legislation has had on her life.

“I am here to lift up the voice of my community, of my children, all those families who have been separated. I am here and I want to present this so you can see it,” Ramirez, 46, cried out in Spanish as she held up the sign at the meeting in Birmingham. “I am a mother, a responsible mother … I am not a criminal and I am here to defend my rights.”

A mother of three and former owner of a hair salon in Mexico, Ramirez, who lives in Arizona, never thought she would end up here, as an immigration activist, possibly jeopardizing her life in the U.S. But after 11 years in this country, she decided to throw herself into the public spotlight as Arizona’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants threatened her family.

“I’m fighting for them and for everyone else, for my community, for the mothers who don’t want to or can’t or don’t know how to support their children,” she said. “I want to represent all of those mothers and all of those young people.”

As a minibus shuttled her and other undocumented immigrants on a nighttime ride last week through the South, a touring protest called the “undocubus,” Ramirez recalled her family’s journey to the U.S.

They came here like many others, seeking better opportunities. She wanted her children to go to good schools and learn two languages. Her husband, Eugenio Sanchez, said it would be a step up from their life back home. They entered the country on tourist visas, which they overstayed, Ramirez said.

But as her two oldest children, Hugo, now 24, and Alina, 19, graduated from high school in Phoenix and tried to move on to college and jobs, their legal status was put in sharp relief. Neither can get steady work and they have had to curtail their studies since a 2006 Arizona law made them ineligible for in-state tuition, meaning higher education is prohibitively expensive.

Ramirez can’t get a stable job, either, since she is undocumented, leaving it up to her husband, who fixes cars, to be the sole provider. But due to the passage of another state law, the controversial SB1070 -- under which authorities must determine immigration status during a lawful stop -- the family has heightened fears, with Eugenio Sanchez opting to hide out one night when authorities suddenly showed up in the area where he works.

“That's the first thing that happened to me with the new laws,” Ramirez said of the scare for her husband, though he returned home the next day without incident. “Day by day, I’ve been scared for my children because they drive. So, I say, ‘What is going to happen if tomorrow one of them gets stopped and I’m not going to see them? Or maybe, they’ll detain me while I'm on the street, what’s going to happen to them?’ It's gotten me to think, ‘What am I doing here? Should I go? Should I stay?’ It’s something that you can’t prevent, what may happen.”

The family has had hard discussions about the situation they find themselves in. Tears were shed over the frustration.

Courtesy of Alina Sanchez

The Sanchez family at Alina's graduation from high school in May 2011. From left to right: Rocio, father Eugenio, Alina, mother Maria Cruz Ramirez, Hugo.

“We would find ... a wall between us, between everything we wanted and between what we could have ... in Mexico,” Alina said, noting that her mom asked many times if they wanted to return to their home country.

Ramirez said her son, Hugo, at one point questioned why they even came.

“He told me, ‘See, why did you bring us here? It’s your fault for bringing us here because we came here without a permit,’” she said, at times wiping away tears. “And I told him, ‘The truth is, it’s true. As a mother, it’s my fault because I was thinking for you and deciding for you, and I think instead of doing good, I did bad for you.’ Because, maybe over there, we would be poor but they would have more.”

Hugo, who is proud of his mom's activism, didn’t recall this specific conversation, but Alina said: "Maybe we did blame her and it's understandable but it's ... not her fault.

"I see where she is coming from and I know she was doing something better for us because she wants us to be better people,” she added.

'No documents, no fear': Undocumented immigrants declare themselves
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Ramirez began volunteering 18 months ago with a group of youth like her own children, who could be eligible for the Dream Act -- immigration reform legislation that has stalled in Congress. But the trigger to stepping up her activism, and putting herself in the spotlight, happened after she saw Hugo and her 17-year-old daughter, Rocio, get arrested while protesting earlier this year on a Phoenix street against Arizona’s immigration restrictions.

“They stood up for themselves and fought for their own rights and dignity,” she said.

When she heard about the bus full of undocumented immigrants heading across the U.S. as a form of visible protest, she said, “My heart jumped and I said, ‘This is my chance.’”

“From the first moment, I thought that it was going to be an impossible dream, even being on the bus, I started asking myself, ‘What I am going to do? What am I doing?’ But now that I feel more part of the group and I participated in different things, I've liked it,” she said.

So far, the bus has wound through Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama on its way to North Carolina for the Democratic National Convention, which begins Sept. 4.

“I armed myself with bravery,” Ramirez said. “I’m not scared anymore because I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m defending my rights as a person, as a human being, and I think if they take away my liberty for a couple of days, I give them up happily.”

Ramirez got legal advice before she left on the trip. She was told that if arrested, she would be low priority for deportation since she hadn’t, for example, committed a crime. But she also learned she didn’t have anything that would help her case, either, such as a relative who is a U.S. citizen, and that ultimately a decision on deportation would be a matter of prosecutorial discretion.

Bob Miller / for NBC News

Maria Huerta, Maria Cruz Ramirez and Gerardo Torres, who are all undocumented, enter a civil rights hearing on the impact of state immigration laws held in Birmingham, Ala., on Aug. 17, 2012.

Her children, however, may stand to benefit from a new federal initiative known as the “deferred action” program, under which certain young immigrants in the country without documents can get a two-year work permit and a reprieve from deportation. But it won’t help the parents of those who qualify, which is hard, Alina said.

“It’s sad to think about ... them not having papers,” she said, also noting how proud she was of her mom. “She’s doing it for us so I am so grateful … . Even though we miss her a lot, we know she is doing something good."

On the road, Ramirez has heard from opposing voices. One of those at the Birmingham hearing, Carol Swain, a professor of politics and law at Vanderbilt University, said the group had not chosen the right venues for their protest.

“Take your protest to Congress and sit outside their doors,” Swain, a self-described conservative, said later by phone. She added that she thought “the average citizen doesn’t understand how someone can be in the country, you know, undocumented or illegal and then they’re making demands and flaunting the fact that they don’t have papers. But when I listen to the people (the undocubus group), I see their sincerity, that they really do believe that they’re entitled ... to be legal and to have all the benefits of American citizens."

"I think we’re sort of speaking past each other," she added, "and I think they’re taking their protest to the wrong party.”

Such a critique is not likely to dissuade Ramirez, who said the bus protest has given her strength and taught her a lot.

“I ask myself every day, ‘What a turn my life made, a total turn,’” she said. “I think it was my time to live. It was my time to give to someone else.”

NBC News' Natalia Jimenez contributed to this this report.

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Courtesy of Sergio Garcia

A California State Bar committee is recommending that Sergio Garcia, an illegal immigrant, receive a law license in a first-ever case for the California Supreme Court that could affect others like him who hope to follow in his footsteps.

Updated at 445 p.m. ET -- An illegal immigrant applying for a law license in California should be allowed to receive it, the State Bar of California argues in a filing to the state Supreme Court.

Sergio Garcia, 35, of Chico, Calif., has met the rules for admission, including passing the bar exam and the moral character review, and his lack of legal status in the United States should not automatically disqualify him, the Committee of Bar Examiners said Monday.

“ … Mr. Garcia’s status in the United States, should not, ipso facto, be grounds for excluding him from law licensure. He has met all of the prescribed qualifications and there is no reason to believe he cannot take the oath and faithfully uphold his duties as an attorney,” the bar said.

Garcia's father is a naturalized citizen, according to the bar, and Garcia is waiting for a visa that would give him legal permanent residency. His application for a law license is being weighed by the court because his case is unprecedented in the state, the bar committee said.

A similar case is being heard in Florida for a bar applicant in that state, Jose Godinez-Samperio, who came from Mexico to the United States as a child with his parents and overstayed a tourist visa. How justices rule in the cases in California and Florida could affect other illegal immigrants who hope to follow in their footsteps.

Some 11.5 million “unauthorized immigrants,” as the Department of Homeland Security calls illegal immigrants, lived in the United States as of January 2011. Of that, 6.8 million were from Mexico, like Garcia, according to the department’s Office of Immigration Statistics. On Friday, President Barack Obama announced that some of the immigrants who came to the country as children – and met other requirements -- would be able to get two-year work permits. He also called on immigration officials to halt deportation proceedings against them.

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Garcia, who attended law school and college in California, does not fit in that group because he is over the age limit of 30, but he is nonetheless overjoyed for those who do. He has been waiting nearly 18 years for a visa, though his petition for it was approved in 1995, the bar said.

“That’s the state of our immigration system … our immigration system is broken,” Garcia told msnbc.com, estimating he will have to wait another five years for the visa. “It’s really painful.”

A decision on his bar application could still be at least months away for Garcia. Others now have one month to submit their own legal filings in the case, and then the state bar would have another month to reply to those, the court said.

“I have always been an eternal optimist so this (bar recommendation) does give me hope,” Garcia, who submitted his application to the bar in 2009, told msnbc.com. “I have faith that my dream of being an attorney will be realized sooner rather than later.”

In the filing, the bar committee said it was not aware of any statute, regulation or authority that would preclude his admission. It noted that Garcia’s employability in the U.S. should not determine whether he gets a license, citing the cases of foreign students who can get admitted to the California bar but may not stay in the country to practice law afterward.

“ … the grant of a law license provides no guarantee of a pathway to lawful employment in the United States for these individuals,” the bar committee said. “What Mr. Garcia, or any other foreign applicant, does with his license after licensure must comport with federal regulations and that is a matter strictly between him and the federal government.”

Former Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, who supports Garcia’s application, said that the court was the ultimate authority on attorney admissions in the state and would likely establish a rule in this case that would apply to similar ones in the future.

But the possibility that undocumented immigrants could receive law licenses doesn’t sit well with some.

“I think that’s ridiculous,” said Marilyn DeYoung, chairman of Californians for Population Stabilization, which advocates for secure borders and allowing fewer immigrants into the country.  “First of all, they are defying the law of America by being here illegally so, and now they want to be a lawyer and to practice American law. I think that’s really sort of stupid that our California bar would recommend that.”

While DeYoung said she could sympathize with Garcia’s long wait for his visa and she wouldn’t be unhappy if an exception was made for him, she expressed concern that a general rule could come out of this case that would allow any illegal immigrant to get a license.

“We would definitely oppose that,” she said. “This is, we feel, is not right.”

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Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio at Capitol Hill on April 19. He is an undocumented immigrant, brought to the U.S. from Mexico as a child, who is seeking his law license in Florida in what appears to be a landmark case.

Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio was brought to the United States from Mexico by his parents when he was nine years old. Sixteen years later, he had graduated from his Florida high school as class valedictorian, become an Eagle Scout, completed college and law school, and passed the state bar exam.

But one big accomplishment eluded him: citizenship. Godinez-Samperio is in the country illegally, which could keep him from achieving another part of his American dream: becoming a lawyer.

In what appears to be a landmark case, the Florida Supreme Court is going to consider whether Godinez-Samperio has the right to practice the law -- a decision that could impact others who hope to follow in his footsteps.

“It makes me feel that we’re living in a … historical moment. I really think the last time something like this happened was when African Americans and women were admitted to the bar,” he told msnbc.com. “I think if we win this, it’ll be another historical civil rights mark.”

Godinez-Samperio is pressing his case as the national debate over illegal immigration heats up. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of Arizona’s strict anti-illegal immigration law. And last week, Godinez-Samperio was in the nation’s capitol to lobby for the Dream Act, which would provide a path to legal status to some adults who came to America illegally as children. Supporters are making a renewed push for the legislation after it failed in the U.S. Senate in 2010. 

Some 11.5 million “unauthorized immigrants,” as the Department of Homeland Security calls them, lived in the United States as of January 2011. Of that, 6.8 million were from Mexico, like Godinez-Samperio, according to the department’s Office of Immigration Statistics.

Godinez-Samperio’s journey to the law began when he and his parents left their home in Pachuca, Mexico. They came on tourist visas, which they overstayed. He didn’t know English and it was a few years before he began to realize what his immigration status was and what it meant for his future.

He couldn’t get a social security number or a driver’s license, he didn’t have access to most financial aid, he couldn’t work for compensation and has been ineligible for most internships and awards, according to an essay he submitted for his law school application.

But he said he managed to get private scholarships to help pay for his education, and volunteered where he could -- such as helping domestic violence victims obtain immigration relief.

“For me, it’s very important to show that I have been a contributing member of society (the) entire time I have lived in this country,” he said. “ … there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to contribute even more  … with a green card.”

When Godinez-Samperio applied to take the bar exam last year, he sought a waiver because he didn’t have proof of his immigration status, which is required by the Florida Board of Bar Examiners who administer the test. States set their own requirements for those seeking to become a lawyer.

His request was granted. Godinez-Samperio took the bar exam in July and found out in September that he had passed. He was ecstatic, until he learned in November that the board was going to seek an advisory opinion from the state supreme court on whether undocumented immigrants are eligible for admission to the Florida Bar.

Denny Henry for msnbc.com

Cesar Vargas at Capitol Hill on April 19 to launch a Dream Act-related campaign. He is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, brought to the U.S. as a child, who is pushing for immigration law reform.

“I had mixed feelings,” he said. “I knew that it was going to be an interesting trajectory that I was about to begin.”

That journey has included a number of filings from the board and his attorney, Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte, as well as a few friend-of-the-court submissions from groups supporting his application, including three past presidents of the American Bar Association.

“It’s the first time it’s ever been addressed in Florida, and I think it’s probably the first time it’s been before a supreme court anywhere in the country,” said Thomas Arthur Pobjecky, the board’s general counsel.

The board determined it was “a really serious matter” and decided to seek out the court’s guidance in these types of cases, which they expect to see more of in the future.

“If the law says you cannot employ -- or it’s against the law to employ -- somebody who is not legally in this country, then when we say … here is a license to practice law in this country, are they not also implying that you can hire this person and go ahead and pay him and everything else? So there is a concern,” Pobjecky said. “Once the Florida Supreme Court licenses somebody to be a lawyer, they’re putting their stamp of approval on that person.” 

But D’Alemberte questioned why the board would let his client sit the exam if they did not intend to give him a license.

“It just seems to us fundamentally unfair after he’s complied with every valid rule not to just go ahead and admit him to the bar and leave to the immigration service whether he is complying with immigration,” he said.

The possibility that undocumented immigrants could receive law licenses doesn’t sit well with some.

“I know what the policy ought to be, which is that … someone who doesn’t have the right to be in the United States shouldn’t be admitted to the bar, period,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that supports tighter immigration controls.

“This is trying to steal a base. In other words, they’re trying to skip over the debate over whether people in his situation should get legalized,” he added. “It’s one more way of trying to create a de facto legalization.”

Cesar Vargas, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has passed the bar exam and is in the process of applying for his law license in New York, has started a group, the Dream Bar Association, to advocate for people in his position. Membership numbers about two dozen, and includes those interested in going to law school to those who have passed the bar.

“We’re basically throwing the judicial branch into the immigration debate … through our cases,” he said.

In California, Sergio Garcia, 35, an illegal immigrant, has been awaiting a decision since he passed the bar exam in 2009. Because the admissions process is confidential, neither Garcia nor the bar could speak about his application, though a bar spokeswoman said the application for admission doesn't require citizenship.

Thomas Fitton, of conservative Washington watchdog Judicial Watch, said the idea of an undocumented immigrant working as a lawyer in the U.S. was “preposterous.”

“These are kind of, in some ways, public relations stunts, but you know, we’ll see what happens … the whole notion of it is at odds with the rule of law and undermines federal immigration law,” he said. “I think those who’ve passed the bar should focus on making themselves legal as opposed to bypassing the law.”

But others feel that admission should be done on a case-by-case basis, taking into account whether a specific applicant has met the moral character test of the application, said Stephen N. Zack, a former ABA president who has filed a brief in support of Godinez-Samperio.

“You can’t take one finite point and say that that is an absolute determination of a person’s character,” he said. “You have to look in a holistic way at the person’s life story and here, you have an exceptional person.”

He also noted that bar candidates like Godinez-Samperio could offer some unique services, with the nation heading to a “majority minority” status in the decades to come.

“We need people who can reach out and provide access to communities that … have historically not had access, and this is the kind of person that is ideal to provide that to the future generations,” he said.

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Godinez-Samperio, who would like to work in immigration law, continues to research his case and to work on promoting the Dream Act.

“This is a huge fight for me and for a lot of people,” he said.

Despite the challenges and the uncertainty, he doesn’t regret going public before a Florida legislative committee in April 2011 with his status, which few were aware of before.

“I decided to come out with my story because I’m undocumented, unapologetic and unafraid,” he said. “In telling the truth, I am risking my liberty, but that’s what a lawyer is about, is about telling the truth … so I’m being as honest as I can possibly get, even to the point of risking my liberty.”

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