Section 14: Chapters 17 and 18 Summary

In Chapter 17, Aisha takes the stage to give her valedictorian speech, and when she hesitates, Nadira signals her to go ahead. The audience gasps when Aisha introduces herself, admitting she is an illegal alien. She continues that her family came to America eight years ago on a tourist visa and stayed. Abba worked, and the first lawyer they hired to make them legal disappeared. They hired another lawyer, but it did not work. In those days, they were people that Americans did not see, but they needed each other. Then, two planes crashed into two towers, and the invisible people became visible, became dangerous terrorists. Wanting to do right for his family, Abba drove to Canada, but he was arrested because they accused him of giving money to a suspicious organization. Though this was not true, "none of those...