A crowd filled the Hughes-Trigg Forum to see the first screening of the movie “Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth” in North Texas on Thursday night.

Hosted by the SMU student chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, the event brought in staff, students, alumni and members of the Dallas community.

The documentary includes testimonials by undocumented youth and their struggles to find a way through life after high school graduation.

Teachers, politicians, activists and attorneys also weighed in on the subject, which has caused controversy due to the Development, Relief and Education for Minors Act.

The DREAM Act, was proposed as a federal bill meant to give undocumented youth in America a chance at becoming legal residents.

After the movie, a panel discussed the DREAM Act as well as other issues facing youth in America who do not “have their papers.”

Julieta Garibay, a DREAM activist since 2005 and the co-founder of University Leadership Initiative, a program to help undocumented students, began the discussion by explaining to the audience what the act is, after praising the film.

DREAM allows youth that were still minors when they were brought to the country to gain access to legal residence in the United States by going to school for two years or joining the military.

They must also graduate from high school and have good moral character, meaning no felonies or misdemeanors.

She also emphasized the need for passing the bill soon and for other young people to get involved.

“I really feel like our generation can’t be part of the problem, they must be part of the future,” Garibay said.

A major problem shown in the movie was that once the undocumented youth finish high school there are no other options for them.

The teachers that were interviewed all agreed that by their junior year most of these students give up on school because they see no future.

“One of the primary reasons these students drop out of high school is because they don’t think they can go to college,” Manuel Rendon, a Collin County student panelist and DREAM advocate, said.

The solution to this is the DREAM Act according to its advocates. “We need to provide a route where people who are called illegal can become legal,” said SMU sociology Professor Tony Cortese, another panelist.

The movie profiled four young people who face the reality that getting an education past college or even a job is nearly impossible without being a legal U.S. resident. The problem that many of them faced was not only that it was extremely hard to find a school to accept them, but they did not have the funds to pay for it.

There are only 10 states in the United States which offer in-state tuition to undocumented students, the other 40 charge either out-of-state or international tuition. However, all states must provide education for undocumented students until high school.

The movie showed the struggle of youth that are from different backgrounds.

One woman was Jamaican, while the other was Guatamalan. Fernando Salazar said the movie was a way to show who was being affected by current laws.

“The movie did put a face to the scenario,” he said.

The panelists also agreed.

“It was nice to see a motion picture that documents the struggles that often go unnoticed,” Texas Tech student Ramiro Luma said.

“Papers” showed scenes form the 2009 National Dream Graduation held in Washington, D.C. in June.

The footage showed undocumented students from all over the country in their high school cap and gown fighting for the DREAM Act.

Garibay also said the problem is not only in border states, but all over the country.

A dedication to “the DREAMers and their teachers” ended the film with applause by all.

The issue noted most in the panelist discussions was the need for group action. “We’re not going to win this struggle by ourselves,” Luma said. The DREAM Act and the movie speak to community action, as did all of the panelists.

A raffle was held at the end for those who donated, for a book about undocumented youth and their struggle to become legal residents.

Those who donated received a button, which read DREAM Act, to show support of the bill, which Garibay hopes will go to vote in Congress by early 2010.

The bill lost by just eight votes in 2007.