SMU students are bringing immigration reform awareness to campus, as the SMU chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens present “Papers,” a documentary about youth without legal status, in the Hughes-Trigg Theater, tonight at 7 p.m.
This is the second screening LULAC has brought to SMU. Last semester, SMU hosted the first screening of “Papers” in Texas.
This film follows the story of five of 65,000 undocumented students who graduate from high school every year.
Elizabeth Zamora, the SMU LULAC president, said, “The movie really helps put a face to students who are undocumented… I also like the fact that the students they showed on the movie are diverse and from different backgrounds and races.”
The five students who are chronicled in the movie are Mexican-American, Guatemalan-American, Korean-American and Jamaican-American.
Zamora said she wanted to bring the movie to SMU, because it is well known in the area and the campus does not have a large Latino community.
“So, it’s nice to have the Latino community speak out about issues that affect us, and everyone else,” she said.
After the movie, there will be a panel discussion including Democratic Texas Representative Rafael Anchia and Julieta Garibay, a DREAM activist and co-founder of the University Leadership Initiative. They will answer questions and discuss topics from the audience. Zamora said Garibay is “one example of many students who have attained higher education and they’re limited in the things they can do.”
LULAC will have a petition to sign in support of the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act.
The DREAM Act is a bill that allows certain undocumented students to attain citizenship through military service or higher education.
“I think [DREAM] is a really good proposal, because these students were brought into the United States… by their parents. So, it’s not like they could say, ‘No mom, I don’t want to go,'” Zamora said.
Fernando Salazar, coordinator of Latin@ Student Services, said many of these students identify with America, rather than their country of origin, because they came to the U.S. very young.
Zamora said it is hard for most students to face the possibility of returning to a country that is foreign to them when they do not know the language or the culture.
Both Salazar and Zamora stressed the economical benefits of granting citizenship to undocumented students.
Salazar said the U.S. would benefit from tapping into “talent in our backyard” instead of overseas.
“These are local resources the United States needs to tap into and not deny, because in the end the United States would benefit from them,” Zamora said.
In addition to screening “Papers,” SMU students will start their own documentary, “Boxed In,” in May. The film will explore lives undocumented students, who are attending college and the struggles they face after graduation.
