HispanicBusiness

The widow of Steve Jobs Tuesday made a forceful call for immigration reform that would benefit undocumented young Latinos who were brought to the US as children.

In some of her first public comments since the death of her husband more than a year ago, Laurene Powell Jobs spoke to Yahoo News to mark the unveiling of a new film project.

The project allows young undocumented immigrants to submit videos online describing how their lives would change if the so-called Dream Act would pass. Director David Guggenheim (Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth) will then compile the videos into a feature documentary film.

Powell Jobs told Yahoo News the new project aimed to put faces and depth to the young people who would benefit from the Dream Act.

"There needed to be a demystification - to put a face to these people, to hear the individual stories," Powell Jobs said.

"They're our children's friends. They are people we know. This is a huge national problem that needs resolution," Powell Jobs said.

The Dream Act would legalize young people under age 30 who entered the US before they were 15 and have lived in the country continuously for five years. To earn legal status and eventually a path to citizenship, applicants would have to prove they have no criminal record and either enlist in the military or attend at least two years of college.

There are an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US. President Barack Obama last year ordered immigration officials to halt deportation actions against people who would be eligible to stay in the US under the Dream Act proposals.

On Tuesday in his inauguration speech, Obama vowed that the US "journey" is not complete until there is a better way to "welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity."