Documentary shows stories of ‘undocumented youth'

Hearing the stories of four high school students who faced deportation due to lack of proper immigration documentation affected sophomore Jennifer Cushenberry.

“You never really know if the person sitting next to you is struggling with this situation,” she said. “And you might be complaining about ‘Oh, I don’t want to do this today.’ And they have to be ready to fight just to sit there and be where you are.”

Cushenberry watched the documentary “Papers: Stories of Undocumented Youth” along with 20 other students Wednesday at the IU Maurer School of Law.

The documentary, written and directed by Anne Galisky, told the stories of four students facing high school graduation without legal citizenship status.

“It is a very powerful movie,” said Gerardo Lopez, assistant professor at the IU School of Education. “It looks at some of the real challenges kids are faced with. Often times we talk about immigration matters in the abstract. The movie put faces with those facing immigration challenges.”

Lopez said he was asked to be a discussant for the movie. He and his wife recently published a book on the same topic, “Persistent Inequality,” and this was his first time viewing the documentary.

Undocumented youth is one topic that not a lot of attention is paid to, Lopez said. Nationally it is on everyone’s mind right now, he said, and it is important to keep it on the forefront.

“When you have a population not allowed to speak for themselves, you have to step up and help speak for them,” Lopez said.

Graduation is a bittersweet moment for undocumented teens, Lopez said, and the documentary chose to tackle that area. After graduation, he said the students are faced with “what now?”

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe that undocumented students should not be forced to pay an additional fee to attend public schools, Lopez said. But there is fear that the legislations will be overturned, he said.

The documentary also touched on students’ fight for the government to pass the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act.

The Act would provide some undocumented students full citizenship following completion of a college degree or two years of military service.

“The DREAM Act got taken off the table due to market concerns,” Lopez said. “There are a lot of folks waiting to see what will happen in relation to the DREAM Act.”

After viewing the documentary, sophomore Elizabeth Uduehi said she was amazed by one of the students’ situations.

“He’s an AP Scholar,” she said. “And has all these different types of awards. He could find the cure for cancer or something. And I’m like, ‘We’re suppressing that because of paper?’”