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Grounded in ethnic identity theory, critical race theory (CRT) and critical discourse analysis (CDA), this chapter’s objective is to demonstrate the role of news media in the (mis)construction of the identity formation of undocumented youth and the resulting implications of this (mis)construction within the field of education. This study uses mixed methods that include a CDA of Spanish and English language evening television news reports about the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act of 2010, and qualitative analysis of interviews with undocumented youth. The implications for undocumented youth traverse from greater society and into schools, and we argue that education leaders must actively challenge and disrupt the (mis)constructions in direct and intentional ways. We provide a theoretical argument and practical steps for how education leaders can support undocumented youth in their communities.

Coming of age in the United States as an undocumented immigrant alters traditional rites of passage such as “completing school, moving out of the parental home, establishing employment, getting married, and becoming a parent” (Gonzales, 2011, p. 604). Yet, the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012 began to reconcile some aspects in the life, educational, and occupational trajectories of nearly 800,000 youths. It is in the context of moving out the parental home or relocating that this chapter explores the decisions or processes that DACA beneficiaries encounter. Considering how “illegality,” place, and family impact the individual, this chapter demonstrates how different immigration statuses, attitudes, behaviours, and structures disparately, yet unequivocally, continue to frame coming of age processes. Drawing from seven interviews with undocumented Mexican youth benefiting from DACA along the Texas–Mexico border, this chapter introduces the term mixed-status familism. Mixed-status familism provides a nuanced approach to understand the ways in which the mixed-status nature of a family, their attitudes, behaviours, structures, and the place in which they reside continue to frame newly obtained individual opportunities in general and transitions to adulthood like relocating in specific. While most literature points to the benefits that DACA has provided for individuals and a few explore how these have transferred to the family, this chapter captures how family buffers both the impact of an undocumented status and the benefits of a temporary legal protection.

This chapter examines the educational barriers that homeless youth face in one large urban area. The text reviews the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act and discusses how California has attempted to follow the federal mandates, and the implications for Los Angeles. The chapter utilizes interviews with 120 homeless youth and 45 policymakers, school counselors, and after-school program coordinators in Los Angeles to understand how youth experience the education system. The authors identify aspects of the federal mandate that impede the educational progress of homeless youth. The findings highlight that homeless youth are not a homogenous group and educational supports need to be designed recognizing the diversity of their needs. Implications for policy and program implementation are discussed as they pertain to one large city in order to generate future research that might support, contradict, or expand upon the findings.

In this chapter, Mousumi De presents the principles and implications of CRT in the context of Asian and Asian American experiences including the perspective, features, strategies, and new directions on how to facilitate the preparation of teacher candidates and work with all teachers to understand the complexity of the Asian and Asian American identity, their racialized experiences, and their sociohistorical, transnational contexts that continue to influence their lived experiences. This chapter highlights the important issues and challenges facing Asians and Asian Americans that have been camouflaged by their stereotypical treatment as model minorities. It also shares the work of many scholars on approaches for promoting diversity and inclusion, such as implementing anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and inclusive history curricula, cultural citizenship education, teaching for social justice, and culturally responsive and culturally sustaining teaching for addressing the marginalization of Asians and Asian Americans.

While the literature has focused on the benefits granted by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to undocumented youths in the USA, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the challenges encountered during the application process.

This paper is based on 60 semi-structured interviews with Latino undocumented youths living in the New York City and northern New Jersey metropolitan area.

The policy was intended to improve the inclusion of some undocumented youths in the USA by temporarily shielding them from deportation and providing them with a social security number. Analyses indicate great variation in youths’ experiences while applying for DACA, including program knowledge, financial impact, and application assistance – some of which was alleviated by respondents’ political engagement. This paper shows that participants suffered from anxiety due to the manner of implementation of the program.

This research is based on the self-disclosure of participants as undocumented youths. Fieldwork also took place in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, which is traditionally considered as more “immigrant-friendly” context than other areas of the USA.

This paper provides much needed information on the ways in which undocumented youths navigate the federal immigration system and the anxiety associated with it. This paper demonstrates the possibility that a federal policy whose goal is inclusionary could be implemented at the local level in such a way as to promote anxiety and alienation. It also highlights the role of political engagement in shaping immigrant youth’s experiences in the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of documentation on the educational experiences, college readiness and aspirations of undocumented Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

This ethnographic study was conducted in a High School Equivalency Program at a large university in the Midwest. Data was collected during two semesters across a three-year span. Participants included six Mexican migrant and seasonal farmworkers who were preparing to earn their General Educational Development (GED) diploma. Using the grounded theory, data was collected and analyzed simultaneously where initial and focused coding took place, followed by cross-case analysis.

Analysis of student interviews, participant observations and in-depth fieldnotes that include the K-12 educational experiences, experiences during and after the High School Equivalency Program reveal that undocumented Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers aspire to earn a GED diploma to access a better future inclusive of college. However, the legal liminality, the uncertainty and ambiguity of being undocumented, impacts their educational journey prior to, during and beyond the High School Equivalency Program. Furthermore, undocumented Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers are unable to change their material conditions with a GED because of their documentation status.

Although researchers have studied the education experiences of Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers, analysis and consideration of documentation status is missing. This study contributes much needed findings about the impact of documentation status on the educational experiences, college readiness, and aspirations of Latinx migrant and seasonal farmworkers.

Purpose – The present study looks at the dynamic process of Mexican immigrant children and youth's civic engagement through their participation in community and family activities. In particular, it explores how their collaboration in a grassroots, immigrant community-based Centro in New York City allows for civic engagement. We demonstrate how active community participation, in the form of civic engagement, shapes children and youth's citizenship constructions.Methodology – Based on extensive participant observations and focus group interviews, this article demonstrates how children and youth's civic engagement is mediated by their integration and contributions to family and community civic activities and how these activities inform children and youth's knowledge of citizenship discourse. We present evidence that demonstrates that children and youth's involvement and participation in protests, rallies, volunteer activities, as well as the creation of a booklet, associated with immigration, human rights, and social justice, organized through the Centro Guadalupano, facilitated their knowledge about illegality and citizenship issues.Findings – Findings suggest that when indigenous Mexican children and youth are integrated into the important activities of their community, as active and engaged members, they develop a deeper understanding of civic engagement and what it means to be a participatory “citizen.”Research implications – The present study provides a starting point for future research on the importance of and possibilities for child and youth civic engagement in grassroots community organizations. For example, children and youth learn that through active civic participation and community contributions, they are able to challenge dominant discourse on immigration, human rights, and citizenship. This study sheds light on the value of involving children and youth in civic engagement opportunities – a process that can facilitate the construction of citizenship among marginalized groups, particularly undocumented Mexican immigrants from indigenous regions.Value – The findings presented extend broader discourses on the politics of immigration and citizenship, and also challenge, to some extent, mainstream constructions of children and youth. More research in these areas is needed; our paper is a small contribution to the emerging field of indigenous and immigrant children and youth's political socialization and activism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated chronic disparities in income, employment and health-care access. Yet, little is known about how various sources of economic and emotional strain (i.e. caregiving, justice system involvement and documentation status) intersect during the pandemic. The purpose of this study is to understand how undocumented women in justice-involved families experienced the pandemic.

Surveys of 221 mothers of justice-involved youth examined differences between documented and undocumented parents in COVID-19 testing, health and economic concerns related to the pandemic and generalized anxiety.

The results revealed undocumented women were less likely to receive COVID-19 testing than documented women, despite no difference between the two groups in suspicion that they may have contracted the virus. Also, undocumented women were more concerned than documented women about losing a job, not having enough food, not having enough non-food supplies, not having access to basic utilities or internet, losing their usual childcare services and losing a loved one to COVID-19.

The findings highlight the vulnerability of justice-involved families who have an undocumented member and implications for long-term solutions to address these disparities are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive summary of the current status of undocumented immigrants in the United States, with a particular focus on the DREAM Act, as a policy option to confront the realities of immigration in our nation.

A literature review is presented providing the context to understand the livelihood of undocumented immigrants in the United States. This summary is supported by an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of the DREAM Act.

It is clear that immigration reform has emerged as one of the most compelling issues in our country. This examination highlights that the DREAM Act cannot be enacted as a policy in a vacuum. Rather, the DREAM Act will need to operate in concert with other policies (i.e., education, economic, health care, immigration) to offer a foundation for future immigration reform policies.

Several states support policies that welcome undocumented immigrants seeking a college education. This paper presents valuable information highlighting the need for reform and action considering current demographic and immigration trends.

This paper serves as a resource providing a detailed summary of the current status of undocumented immigrants in the United States. In addition, it provides an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of the DREAM Act.

The Remain in Mexico Policy, also known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), forced asylum-seeking children into seemingly untenable situations and conditions across the United States’ South Texas border. This case study examines stories told by the children of Tent Zero and their parents about the conditions and experiences they faced as a result of MPP. Their stories reveal that the conditions asylum-seeking children at the South Texas border faced have been severe and include, but are not limited to, a lack of adequate food and water, extreme weather, inadequate sanitation, and a lack of appropriate or consistently available schooling. Prior research has not fully investigated how educators can and should work with students who have experienced such severe conditions, which often result in compounded emotional suffering. By examining the effects that the MPP, which was instituted during the Trump administration, has had on youth and families staying in Matamoros, Mexico, as a result of this policy, this case study not only provides a glimpse into the lived experiences of asylum-seeking children and families at the South Texas Border, but also provides insight and guidance for educational policymakers, educators, and communities where these youth transition to and continue in school in the US. As a starting point, all of the asylum-seeking children who participated in this study expressed their interest in and longing to go to school demonstrating both the practical and symbolic importance of formal education in asylum-seeking communities like those at Tent Zero.