From ChicagoNow:

High school graduation would normally be a time to celebrate. Many students make plans for college and look forward to the next phase of their lives.

But for Reyna Wences it was different. The day after her high school graduation from Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago in the summer 2009 she took a bunch of sleeping pills.

She attempted suicide because she felt no hope for her future. Wences, now 19, is an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States from Mexico at the age of 3.

"I want everyone to know that I am a survivor and that last year I attempted suicide because I am tired of being undocumented," Wences said at a small rally Tuesday afternoon at federal plaza in Chicago.

Wences and other "dreamers," are anxiously awaiting to see if lawmakers in the House of Representative and the Senate will vote on the DREAM Act later Wednesday. The legislation would give undocumented youth, who complete two years of college or military service, a pathway to legalization.

Without legalization many of these youth educated and acculturated in the United States feel like they have a limited future. Activists said that a Chicago man, Benjamin Pintor, who was undocumented, committed suicide over Thanksgiving weekend.

"Two weeks ago Chicago lost a young dreamer because of frustrations of his dreams being denied to him," said Nathan Ryan with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, who read a statement by one of Pintor's friends at the rally.

"Fed up with his lack of options in a place he considered home, he committed suicide, leaving his friends and loved ones heartbroken," Ryan read from the statement.

There have been other cases around the country of undocumented youth who have committed suicide. Undocumented student Gustavo Rezende, 19, of Brazil, committed suicide in the spring in the Boston area.

In general, Hispanic youth in grades 9 to 12 are more likely to report attempting suicide than their black and white peers, according to the Centers for Disease Control. About 10 to 11 percent of Hispanic students reported  they attempted suicide, compared with around 7 percent of whites and 8 percent of blacks, a survey found. (The study did not address immigration status.)

An estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school in the United States each year.

Social worker Jackie Luna said that some of the students lose hope.

"You're told that if you work hard and if you study that you are going to graduate and find a job. But that isn't a reality for people who are undocumented," said Luna who works with the violence recovery services program at Heartland Alliance.

"If you feel like you don't have a future, then what are you working towards?" she added.