(Video) Lizbeth's Limbo: The Dream Act

A graduate's struggle to work in her profession.

In today's struggling economy, college graduates rarely turn down job offers. But Lizbeth Mateo has no choice. The 5'1", soft-spoken graduate of California State University, Northridge (CSUN) received offers to work for several human rights NGOs -- her dream profession -- but Mateo had to decline because she doesn't have a Social Security number. Instead, she works six days a week cooking and cleaning at a local deli.

Although Mateo graduated high school and college in the United States, speaks a firm California Spanglish, and knows more about her adopted Los Angeles than her native Oaxaca, Mexico, she's still legally an outsider.

"[Being undocumented] is something that's with you the whole day," she says. "We forget about it sometimes, but it's always there with you, day and night."

(More on her story here.)