21 Volume 31 | 2019 Examining Teachers’ Awareness of Immigration Policy and Its Impact on Attitudes toward Undocumented Students in a Southern State Sophia Rodriguez, with William McCorkle 1 Abstract This study investigates teachers’ awareness of federal and state immigration policy and how it impacts their attitudes toward undocumented students using an explanatory mixed-methods design in a focal state in the New Latino South, i.e., South Carolina. Data were collected in 2016–2018 during the height of post-Trump anti-immigrant rhetoric and a furry of xeno- phobic initiatives. The article shares descrip- tive survey data results (n = 101) that reveal an insignifcant correlation between teachers’ awareness and attitudes but illustrate an alarm- ing lack of awareness of policies related to im- migration and a range of attitudes regarding these policies. Qualitative interviews showcase more deeply teachers’ attitudes about immi- grants/immigration policy. The paper argues for increasing teacher awareness in the form of sociopolitical knowledge of policy contexts and a nuanced conceptualization of teacher empathy. The signifcance of this study is that to date there has not been a large-scale study that examines teachers’ awareness of federal and state immigration policy and how that awareness shapes attitudes toward undocu- mented students specifcally, yielding practical knowledge for teacher preparation programs and professional development. Implications suggest that teachers who lack sociopolitical awareness are more likely to believe in false or inaccurate narratives about immigrants, which negatively impacts undocumented students. Introduction This timely study acknowledges that undoc- umented immigrant students face signifcant challenges in schools and US society. This study speaks directly to such challenges as it examines the anti-immigrant policy climate in the focal state of South Carolina. This anti- immigrant policy climate that recently arrived undocumented youth navigate positions them as “criminals,” “risks,” and “threats” to society 2,3 (Rodriguez, 2017). As undocumented immi- grants are negatively positioned in public and political discourse, it is imperative to investi- gate how this social and political context shapes their school experiences. To this end, this study contributes to the growing body of literature about K–12 teachers’ experiences working with undocumented immigrant youth. 4,5,6 The study creates new knowledge about high school teachers’ awareness about the federal and state immigration policies and their attitudes toward undocumented students in a constrained and hostile policy context in the New Latino South, specifcally South Carolina. Feature