On Wednesday, 11 immigrants asked the Department of Homeland Security for "deffered action" from deportation despite not being qualified, in an attempt to persuade President Barack Obama to use his executive power to delay deportation for 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

The group of immigrants were led by Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented Filipino immigrant and seasoned U.S. journalist who was detained at an airport in McAllen, Texas in July, NBC News reports.

"This morning with our names and our faces and our history in this country that we call our home, we present ourselves to the government united and resolute," Vargas said.

The immigrants are asking the White House to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which went into effect in 2012. The program delays deportation for those who came to the country as children and have lived in and attended school in the country since 2007. Although ineligible for the program, the immigrants filed in the name of millions who do not qualify to be DREAMers, or DACA participants.

"Our families need relief now," Vargas said. "Just how inclusive and humane will President Obama's executive action be? Who will be left out and why?"

According to The New York Times, the 11 immigrants come from various countries and include a German woman who has been in the U.S. since 1986, a 34-year-old man from South Korea and a Mexican grandmother who has taken care of her grandchildren since their parents' deportation.

The immigrants also include Maria Guadalupe Arreola, who was arrested in her house after a raid ordered by Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and now faces deportation, NBC News reports.

"I never thought the American Dream I had so profoundly would become a nightmare when immigration came to my house and took me in front of my children," she said. "I'm asking President Obama to include me in his executive order."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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