Marginalized within the borderlands: The undocumented citizen students of the University of Texas-Pan American

The Rio Grande Valley, geographically located on the southernmost tip of Texas and north of the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, is far removed from the social and cultural centers of both the United States and Mexico. Within this geographically and socially marginalized space lives a group of citizen students who lack legal documentation to reside in the U.S. This ethnographic study will seek to convey the perceptions of undocumented citizen students, their families, and the background assumptions through which they understand their current and future state of social place. The University of Texas-Pan American is home to over 19, 000 students of which 89% are Latina/o’s. As means of exploring the experiences of this sub-cultural population, this thesis will include and analyze their narratives, which will help gain insight into their sense of social place where institutions shaped their citizenship and form their legal and sociocultural exclusion