March 5 was the deadline President Trump set when he ended the program to protect hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as young people.
But the Dreamer deadline has now come and gone with no action from Congress -- but plenty of anger and fear from Dreamers.
Police arrested scores of them and their supporters at the Capitol. Some of the protesters had chained themselves together, and Capitol Police had to use bolt cutters to cut them apart.
The Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, deadline is less urgent because the courts have ordered the Trump Administration to keep processing renewals pending a resolution of a number of lawsuits.
But thousands of young people are still at risk of deportation
"Down, down with deportation! Up, up with liberation," they chanted as they marched up the National Mall.
They came to Washington from across the country, each with a story.
"If they deport me, it's like they're deporting an American citizen. My daughter is ten years old," said Mario Guzman, who fled the civil war in El Salvador twenty years ago, got temporary protected status, and had three children in the US, including his youngest, Kimberly.
"Super, super worried. It's makes me feel... bummer," she said.
Her father, a casino waiter in Atlantic City has been given until next year to leave the United States.
"This country is the most wonderful country in the whole world," he said, convinced that the American people will step in to help save his family.
Unable to push any kind of protection for Dreamers through Congress, scores of protesters may have put themselves even more at risk by getting arrested for sitting in.
"I have no other choice. America is my home," said Raul Arco, 36, who came in from Nebraska to march.
President Trump tried to shift the blame to Democrats for failing to fix the program that he ended.
He tweeted: "It’s March 5th and the Democrats are nowhere to be found on DACA. Gave them six months, they just don’t care. Where are they? We are ready to make a deal!"
But to protect dreamers, the Trump Administration had demanded not just billions for a wall, but steep cuts in legal immigration, and no Democrats in the Senate were willing to accept that deal.
"There's this overwhelming feeling of defeat that we have right now because nothing is being done," said Daniela Rojas, 25, with her voice breaking. "There's a hope, and they keep putting it off and putting it off. And that's not right, because it's a human rights issue."
Democratic State Representative Isela Blanc finds hope in places like Arizona, a red state where she was elected a year ago, despite her own history as an undocumented immigrant.
"If we can elect two former undocumented people in the state of Arizona, anything is possible."
"These people have children," said Rojas. "Children who are coming of age to vote. So good luck getting re-elected."
Despite the court order, Citizenship and Immigration Services has struggled to keep up with a flood of dreamer renewal requests. And as the Dreamers wait for their new permits, they are subject to deportation.
