Kamal Essaheb allowed himself to celebrate a small victory last week. For the first time in two years, he left immigration court without a pending date that could spell deportation to a country he no longer calls home.

But Mr. Essaheb, who turns 24 today, knows his immigration status is still a ticking time bomb. At 11, he moved with his parents to Queens from Morocco. It was years later, he said, that he learned he was an illegal immigrant, when a college guidance counselor requested his Social Security number to process his applications. Now a well-spoken law student at Fordham University, Mr. Essaheb has assumed a critical role in a movement not only to win him a stay, but also to change immigration law.

While President Bush and members of Congress have vowed to take on comprehensive immigration reform, it is doubtful legislation will pass this session. One bill that is likely to become law soon, however, and one that would save students such as Mr. Essaheb from deportation, is what is called the Dream Act. The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Senators Clinton and Schumer, would provide illegal immigrant students who have lived in America for more than five years before they turn 18 a means to gain legal permanent residency. In addition, the bill would help illegal-immigrant students receive in-state tuition and would qualify them for work-study programs and loans, but not federal grants.

Although it has broad support, critics maintain the bill is a sugar-coated amnesty – with students such as Mr. Essaheb serving as sympathetic poster children who are masking law-breaking behavior.

“It would reward illegal aliens, and the bottom line is it’s not fair to American students who would also want to get in-state tuition,” a spokeswoman for the Washington-based advocacy group Numbers USA, Caroline Espinosa, said. Ms. Espinosa, whose organization urges reduced immigration, warned that the Dream Act could create a chain migration in which parents bring their children to America with the hope of gaining legal status through them.

“It’s extremely unfortunate, but the parents made that decision, and parents make bad decisions on behalf of their children every day,” she said.

More than 50,000 illegal immigrants graduated from high school this year. As graduates, most are trapped in a situation where they cannot work legally and cannot afford to go to university. The Dream Act – sponsored by Senator Hatch, a Republican of Utah, and Senator Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and co-sponsored by more than 45 senators – would permit immigrant students who grow up in America and go to college or join the military to apply for permanent legal status after a conditional status. A parallel measure in the House, called the Student Adjustment Act, also has considerable support.

“They’re kids who grew up here, who did everything right, everything that was asked of them, and because of the way immigration law is, they hit a dead end. They either can’t go on to college, can’t work, or they face banishment,” Mr. Essaheb said, fluidly expressing an argument he practiced on legislators during a recent trip to lobby Washington. “That’s me, that’s my brothers. We know no other country – we just want a chance to live life as we thought we knew it.”

Mr. Essaheb’s immigration saga began two years ago when he urged his father and brothers to register with the Department of Homeland Security. They were among the 83,000 immigrants from Muslim countries and North Korea who complied with the Special Registration anti-terrorism program after the September 11, 2001, attacks. All the Essaheb men were found not to have legal status, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not pursue his father’s case. Mr. Essaheb and his twin younger brothers, however, were among the 13,000 men placed in deportation hearings.

At an immigration rally last week, his first, Mr. Essaheb, dressed smartly in a jacket and a tie, looked in wonder as fellow students, religious leaders, and advocates marched around him shouting “Education, not deportation” and hoisting “Don’t deport our friend Kamal!” banners. A representative of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs slipped him contact information and told him to get in touch with her if he had any questions. A Chinese reporter approached him and asked for a card. “I don’t have a business card,” Mr. Essaheb said. “I’m still a student.”

The Moroccan, who did not disclose to many of his closest friends until recently that he is an illegal immigrant, said he has been touched by the overwhelming response, but not fully surprised.

“A lot of folks assume immigration court makes sense and if someone is being deported he must be a criminal, terrorist, drug dealer,” he said over the din of the marchers. “When they see it’s essentially an American kid, they want to help as much as they can.”

For Mr. Essaheb, discovering he was an undocumented immigrant meant he could not receive the financial assistance necessary to pursue his dream to study engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Instead, he attended Queens College. New York is one of nine states that have enacted legislation to allow certain long-term unauthorized immigrant students to become eligible for in-state tuition.

Mr. Essaheb was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper and graduated with a degree in economics. His trek through immigration court, however, motivated him to shift his career track to law, and he entered Fordham Law School as part of the Stein Scholars Program in Public Interest Law and Ethics.

At last week’s rally, a Fordham professor, Jennifer Gordon, noted the tremendous contribution immigrant students make to the City University of New York system. In one of her classes, she said, the 55 students could trace their heritage to 45 different countries.

“We say we are the country of immigrants, and we say we are proud of that heritage,” Ms. Gordon said, “but what kind of country of immigrants is going to deport its best and the brightest?”

Mr. Essaheb’s case was granted administrative closure earlier this month, meaning the government is reconsidering if it will pursue his case. Even if he is not deported, however, he will not be able to work legally as a lawyer when he graduates.

For the time being, Mr. Essaheb is enjoying the relief of not living from court date to court date, and he is eager for a change in immigration law. “It gives time for things like the Dream Act to pass,” he said. “It gives more of a chance for a legislative solution.”