“I feel like that was my breaking point, when my mom was in jail,” said Guerrero, who came to the US from Mexico when she was 2. “I felt like, well, that’s it, it can’t get any worse than this. My mother has been to jail.” Guerrero first publicly announced her immigration status at a protest in March, and now she’s organizing a rally under the tutelage of more experienced activists who are themselves only a few years older.

The high-stakes movement of young illegal immigrants declaring that they’re “undocumented and unafraid” got a boost this week when a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist revealed he’s been living in the country illegally.

Guerrero is the chief organizer of a rally set for Tuesday at the Georgia State Capitol for high school-age illegal immigrants to tell their stories. The recent high school graduate and others hope to draw attention to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the US illegally by their parents.

Already around the country, efforts by young activists have ranged from rallies and letter-writing to sit-ins and civil disobedience, drawing inspiration from civil rights demonstrations decades ago, with the aim of forcing the federal government to reform rules for immigrants in their situation.

In one of the most high-profile declarations yet, former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas used an ABC News interview and a New York Times Magazine article to announce Wednesday that he is an illegal immigrant from the Philippines.

“It’s very exciting,” said 25-year-old Mohammad Abdollahi, a veteran protester who’s helping Guerrero.

Vargas’ revelation “shows that we exist in all walks of life. Folks don’t realize how American we are,” he said.

Some in the community fear Vargas’ admission that he used false documents to get a driver’s license and a job could invite backlash, but it illustrates the difficult reality for illegal immigrants seeking to pursue their goals, Abdollahi said. Abdollahi was brought to the US from Iran when he was 3 and was raised in Michigan.

Those who come forward make themselves vulnerable, but it’s no guarantee they’ll have to leave the US right away. Some have been deported despite broad support from their communities asking that they be allowed to stay.

Others, like Georgia college student and cause celebre Jessica Colotl, have won at least temporary reprieves.

Mandeep Chahal, an honors student at the University of California, Davis, and her mother were granted a stay in their deportation proceedings Tuesday after Chahal, 20, campaigned on Facebook to avoid being sent back to India.

Proponents of stricter enforcement of immigration laws often concede that young people in this situation are among the most sympathetic cases but that legalizing them still raises problems.

“Our own American young adult college grads are in dire straits in the job market — and particularly disproportionately Hispanic and black Americans — so what the DREAM Act does is adds potentially a million, two million more people to compete legally in that job market,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, which pushes for tighter immigration control. “So, as compelling as the case of these DREAM students is, we have to acknowledge that legalizing them does actually victimize our own young adults.” The Obama administration hasn’t promised not to deport illegal immigrants who were brought to the US as children, but Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has made it clear that they are not a priority.

Still, the threat of being forced out of the country weighs heavily on those who announce their illegal status.

“I was super nervous,” said Georgina Perez, who arrived with her mother from Mexico at age 2. She added: “I had to do it because in order for students to come out, they need to see something; someone needs to set the example.” The hardest thing, she said, was when she told her mother her plans the night before the rally and her mother apologized for putting her in a difficult situation.

“It’s like you can’t really fully live your life here, and she knows that and it breaks her heart,” Perez said, choking up. “I thank her for bringing me here. I told her, `Don’t ever say that again. Don’t apologize.”’