Immigration issues became even more complicated when the Zero Tolerance Policy was enacted in 2018. Asylum seekers now face criminal prosecution, regardless of their situation in the country they are fleeing. Although the border issues with Mexico dominate the news, Muslim families who immigrate face the additional problem of being suspected of being terrorists by racists in their community. Three terrific new books illustrate the traumas immigrants and their children face. We Are All We Have by Marina Budhos follows the problems two Pakistani kids face after their widowed mother is arrested by ICE. All My Rage, the 2022 National Book Award winner by Sabaa Tahir, finds two Pakistani American teens struggling to navigate grief, family abuse and poverty as the children of immigrants in Southern California. Hollow Fires by Samira Ahmed tackles the issues of Islamaphobia and white supremacy in a story about an aspiring journalist who is trying to solve the mystery of a Muslim boy's disappearance after he was accused of being a terrorist.
We Are All We Have takes place in 2019 Brooklyn. It opens with immigrant Rania Hassan looking forward to heading to Hunter College after a relaxing summer vacation. But an overnight ICE raid leads to her mother's arrest, even though Rania, her 8-year-old brother Kamal and their mother applied for political asylum after her journalist father disappeared in Pakistan. Rania and Kamal are moved to a shelter where they meet Carlos, an undocumented teen who escaped a gang threat in Mexico. After the Zero Tolerance policy was implemented by the Department of Justice, these asylum seekers now face prosecution. The three decide to hit the road to find Rania's estranged uncle who could become their guardian. They end up in a temporary sanctuary synagogue, where they must decide the next step in their search for safe haven. This poignant story effectively illustrates how US immigration policies separate families and leave vulnerable children to fend for themselves. Ghazals, Indian poetry which aspiring literature major Rania pens, beautifully express her anguish, as she and the boys fight to stay in the US.
In All My Rage two Pakistani American teens living in the California desert town of Juniper struggle as family crises threaten to derail their dreams. Salahudin finds himself head of his family when his mother dies and his father disappears into alcoholism, as Sal tries to save the rundown motel they own. For years Noor was his best friend, but Sal distances himself from Noor when she declares her love for him. She lives with an abusive uncle who saved her and brought her to America, when her home was destroyed in a Pakistani earthquake. Although she feels beholden to him, she wants to go to college, but her uncle insists she will work in his liquor store after high school. She, too, is grieving Sal's mother's death, as she was Noor's defender. Once supportive of one another, Sal and Noor find their way back to each other only to be torn apart again when he makes a desperate choice to pay off family debts. Through alternating perspectives, the story navigates a variety of themes, including Islamaphobia, found family, abuse and trauma. Songs referenced throughout the book add to this emotional journey of two marginalized teens. ("Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage." Smashing Pumpkins)
Hollow Fires, a dual exploration of Islamaphobia and white supremacy, introduces high school journalist Safira, who is investigating several hate crimes in search of a connection. A cyber-attack substituting a racist rant for her column in the school newspaper, vandalism of her mosque and her parents' Indian food store, and the disappearance of Jawad Ali, a 14-year-old student falsely accused of being a suicide bomber, seem too coincidental to be unrelated. Safira begins to suspect a fellow classmate when he makes a Nietzsche-inspired comment in class, which alerts her to the Nietzsche quotes appearing in the rant, as well as the graffiti. Meanwhile, Jawad's ghost is attempting to lead Safira toward his corpse, at the same time reflecting on his unwarranted school suspension for making a cosplay costume with a jet pack that a teacher mistakes for a bomb. Even though his name is cleared, Jawad, now known as "bomb boy," continues to be harassed. Readers are introduced to statements at the beginning of each chapter in the form of facts, truth and lies about racism, "ghost skins" (a white supremacist who refrains from openly displaying their racist beliefs for the purpose of blending into wider society and surreptitiously furthering their agenda), the role social media plays in fostering extremists agendas and more. This impassioned murder mystery based on a true story, will leave readers pondering the impact the media has on impressionable youth, as well as the struggles immigrant families and their children face in our country.
