Lindsay Hartley is a veteran of daytime having been a cast member of the NBC and DirecTV soap opera Passions for its entire run from 1999 to 2008.

Following a short break from the genre, Hartley was cast on NBC's long-running soap Days of Our Lives as former undercover agent Arianna Hernandez from 2009 to 2010 before being let go.

However, a month later she began appearing on All My Children as Cara Castillo, a doctor who shared a past with Dr. Jake Martin, (Ricky Paull Goldin).

[4] In a November 3, 2010, interview with TV Guide reporter Michael Logan, Hartley discussed the development of her character.

"[4] —Hartley, TV Guide Carolyn Finn first comes to town in 2003 with her fiancé Jake Martin to meet his family and announce their engagement.

Cara decides to get a job at Pine Valley Hospital when she finds out they are short-staffed and after Jake says he doesn't have a problem working with her.

She revealed this to Jake after she got too emotionally involved with a child patient at the hospital and confronted the parents about how they were treating their daughter.

JR surprises Cara by having her mother and her son travel from Puerto Rico to live at the Chandler mansion.

When the subject of Cara not being a documented resident of the United States arose, the plot device coincided with the real-life issue of U.S. immigration laws.

Following questions on Cara's future, she entered a green-card marriage with Jake's brother Tad and married him to remain a resident in the U.S.[5] The subject immediately caused debates among viewers of the show, especially on the show's promptness on allowing Cara to remain in the country with little question from officials.

In an article on Fox News Latino, the subject was emphasized with real viewers opinions that were written on online discussion boards.

“My brother married a woman from Peru and it took two years to get her to the U.S.” Another started a long post with, “The writers probably don’t want to get into this but …" and went on to bemoan the lack of paths to citizenship for undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

"[5] —Fox News Latino The story also mirrored a similar one that occurred on General Hospital, which saw Siobhan McKenna, a legal resident of Ireland living in the U.S. while undocumented, proposed to by her boyfriend Lucky Spencer so that she could remain in the country and not face deportation.

[5] The article also discussed that it was with little effort for Cara to get a job at the town's hospital even though she was not legally enabled to work without a proper visa.