Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth

Speaker: 
Film and Discussion with Susana Munoz and Yahaira Carrillo
 
24 Mar 2011
 
7:00 PM
 
Sun Room, Memorial Union

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Papers is the story of undocumented youth in the United States and the challenges they face as they turn eighteen without legal status. Every year, 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school without "papers" and without a path to citizenship. It is against the law for them to work or drive and difficult, if not impossible in some states, to attend college. Papers follows five undocumented students and the grass-roots movement in support of the DREAM Act, legislation aimed at providing certain undocumented students an opportunity for permanent resident status. A discussion led by Susana Munoz and Yahaira Carrillo will immediately follow the 88-min film.

Susana Munoz is a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies specializing in issues of immigration in higher education. Yahaira Carrillo, an immigrant and student at Rockhurst University, is the founder of the Kansas and Missouri DREAM Alliance, which works to help undocumented youth in their transition from high school to college by connecting them to resources in the community.

Imagine that you were a model student and active member of your community but upon graduating high school couldn’t work, drive, apply for a state ID, or get on an airplane. Imagine that you couldn’t accept the college scholarships that you had been awarded and that you had to pay foreign student tuition in the state where you grew up. Imagine you lived in constant fear of being deported from the only home you’ve ever known to a country you don’t remember, where you know no one, and don’t even speak the language. For 65,000 undocumented students beginning their senior year of high school this month, this is not a fictitious Orwellian nightmare but reality. Directed by Anne Galisky and produced by Rebecca Shine of Portland, Oregon’s Graham Street Productions, the film follows the personal stories of five undocumented students and the national grassroots movement working to pass the DREAM Act. It also includes expert commentary from political, academic and civil rights leaders across the nation including Senator Robert Menendez, Karen Narasaki of the Asian American Justice Center, Clarissa Martinez De Castro of NCLR, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, and Kent Wong of the UCLA Labor Center.