Summary

Inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station, the agents do not know what to do with Jose. They keep moving him from cell to cell and they keep him separated from the other adult men. He then learns from an agent that the story of his arrest and detainment is all over the news. Writing about his emotional and mental state in prison, Vargas says, "Home is not something I should have to earn. Humanity is not some box I should have to check. It occurred to me that I'd been in an intimate, long-term relationship all along. I was in a toxic, abusive, codependent relationship with America, and there was no getting out" (221). Sitting in his cell, Jose concludes that America does not have a broken immigration system, the system is in fact quite deliberate. "Dear America, is this was you really...