Undocumented in the U.S. South is a rare look into the everyday realities of undocumented youth in K-12 public schools. In an anti-immigrant policy context, youth and their families navigate historical and current legacies and realities of segregation, racial discrimination, and inequality. With a deep three-year ethnographic study, hundreds of hours of observational research, interviews, and policy analysis, Sophia Rodriguez traces the lives of undocumented youth across multiple public school settings. Her research underscores how these youth are racialized through state policies, school and organizational practices, and everyday interactions with educators and peers. As the first study of its kind to combine this unique framework for analysis, Undocumented in the U.S. South sheds light on the challenges youth face in their everyday struggle to belong. Rodriguez invites us to consider youth experiences as central knowledge for improving educators’ awareness and school practice, while promoting policies that are humanizing and rooted in youth experience.

SOPHIA RODRIGUEZ is an associate professor of educational policy studies and sociology at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in New York City. She is the coauthor of Race Frames in Education: Structuring Inequality and Opportunity in a Changing Educational Landscape.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Part I Macro
Chapter 2: Ethnographic Interlude I, “I don’t feel welcome here.”
Chapter 3: “This state is racist with its policies toward Hispanics. We work, but don’t have
rights.”: Racialization of immigrants at macro-historical and policy levels.
Part II Meso
Chapter 4: Ethnographic Interlude II, “We call them coolers–immigration rooms are cold.”
Chapter 5: “I was born at the border, like the wrong side of it.”: Racialization and discrimination
at Denizen West High and Citizen North High.
Part III Micro
Chapter 6: “Even being a citizen is not a privilege if you’re Hispanic here...” Undocumented
youth perceptions of racialized citizenship.
Chapter 7: Conclusion and implications for education policy and practice
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography

Introduction 1
Part I Macro-Level
History and Policy Perspectives
1 Ethnographic Interlude I: “I don’t
feel welcome here.”—
Ethnographic
Encounters, Methodological Notes,
and Policy Effects 39
2 “This state is racist with its policies toward
Hispanics.
We work, but don’t
have rights.”: Racialization
of Immigrants at the Macro (Historical and Policy) Level 47
Part II Meso-Level
Organizational
Perspectives
3 Ethnographic Interlude II: “We call them coolers—
immigration
rooms are cold.”—Students’
Migration
Journeys and the Lived Effects of Macro Policies upon
Their Entering U.S. Schools 85
4 “I was born at the border, like the wrong side of it.”:
Racialization and Discrimination at Denizen West High
and Citizen North High 95
Part III Micro-Level
Interactional Perspectives
5 “Even being a citizen is not a privilege if you’re
Hispanic here.”:
Undocumented Youths’ Perceptions of Racialized Citizenship 131
Conclusion: Implications for Education Policy and Practice 149
Acknowledgments
163
Notes 167
References 171
Index 000