Sanctuary

Mami and Vali are both too anxious to sleep. Mami cooks in the kitchen but tells Vali to go back to sleep on the pullout couch they share. They live in an apartment in Southboro, Vermont, and Mami works at a dairy farm called McAuley’s. Vali admires how brave, loving, faithful, and protective her mother is. Vali asks her mother if she has gotten ahold of Tia Luna, but the government has shut off cell phone service and the Internet. The National News makes false, positive claims about the economy. Vali checks Mami’s phone and sees that she has made 53 attempted calls to Tia Luna. Vali tries once more but gets the same error message.

Vali recounts backstory details in interior monologue. In 2023, climate change has escalated and a massive drought, water rations, and dying crops are the norm. The American economy is the worst it has ever been. Vali is from Suárez, Colombia, where she lived with her parents until age four. Armed conflict took Vali’s grandparents’ lives and prompted Vali and her parents to walk to San Diego, where they slept in parks and a shelter for the unhoused. Mami and Papi found farm work, and they got an apartment. Mami got pregnant with Ernie; deportation raids increased, along with protests. The president was reelected for a third term and The Great American Wall was built between California and Mexico. New censorship laws were enacted so that only the National News could be streamed easily and legally. Hologram technology now allows the president to address the entire nation at once. Everyone in the US was required to get identification chips implanted in their wrists, which could be scanned to reveal the person’s name, medical history, birthday, citizenship status, and more.

Mami and Vali got counterfeit identification chips; Ernie received a real one because he was born in the US. Papi waited to get a counterfeit chip due to the cost. Vali’s chip says her name is Amelia Davis, and Vali doesn’t know if this person is dead, imaginary, or still alive. Students are scanned at school each day and sometimes in other places; Vali’s fake chip always fools the scanners. After a workplace raid, ICE took Papi to an undisclosed detention facility, where he remained for six months. Mami could no longer work at the farm, for risk of being picked up by ICE too. Papi was deported to Colombia, then murdered.

The morning after the girl in the Mickey Mouse T-shirt dies in the landmine explosion and their phones shut off, Mami prays at her altar, which is decorated with photos of loved ones and a tiny statue of the Virgin Mary. Vali worries about Tia Luna and whether things are about to get worse for the whole country (not just California). Mami cooks breakfast, and Vali marvels at her resilience. Mami leaves for work, and Vali and Ernie get ready for school using the limited water ration.

Before moving from California to Vermont, Vali heard that winters in Vermont were very cold, but she has not seen a proper blizzard yet due to the drought and global warming. Mami moved them to Southboro because there were not as many raids happening in the Northeast as there were in California. It was a small town where they could exist under the radar. Tia Luna, who had immigration papers due to marrying a US citizen, asked Mami not to leave, but when the president tripled taxes to fight undocumented immigration and build the Great Wall—intended to stretch across the southern border spanning California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona—Mami decided Southboro and working on a new farm, McAuley’s, was their safest bet. There were fewer scanners in Vermont, although students still were scanned daily at school.

Ernie leaves for school and plans to meet Vali at his soccer practice afterward. Vali worries about the day when her own fake chip will stop working, just as Papi’s failed. One time, Mami’s failed too, but instead of taking her to a detention center, the officer raped her, then returned her to her children. Vali gets on her school bus and sits by her best friend Kenna, who was born in the US but whose parents are undocumented immigrants from Nigeria. Kenna is an aspiring coder and wants to create a foolproof counterfeit ID chip one day. Vali wants to discuss the previous night’s independent news with Kenna but can’t do so safely on the bus because others are within earshot.

The school bus takes Vali, Kenna, and others across town to the wealthier area where electricity curfews and water rations have only recently been enacted, unlike their side of town, where they’ve existed for a year. Vali and Kenna were accepted to Morrow High School thanks to the blind admissions policy and their high test scores. Most of the other kids are wealthy and white. Some officers in gray gear that reads “DEPORTATION FORCE” board their bus and scan everyone. This is abnormal, and Vali has not heard of this force before. Vali’s chip works once again, but a stranger’s does not, and they arrest him.

The girls arrive at school, are scanned again, and go to history class, where they have a test. Before they can begin the test, the president interrupts with a hologram broadcast. He announces a state of national emergency due to treason last night. He has deployed a new team called the Deportation Force (DF) who are meant to arrest and detain all undocumented immigrants. They are also allowed to arrest people and enter private properties without warrants. A curfew is now in effect for everyone, and travel between California and the rest of the nation is forbidden. A system upgrade for the ID chips will result in the arrest of more people using counterfeit chips.

At lunch, only Kenna is as concerned as Vali about the president’s announcement. The other kids complain that they had less time than usual for their test. They think what the president is doing is a good idea. The cafeteria staff fuss at the kids to stop talking because they are only allowed nine minutes for lunch.

After school, Vali is relieved to see Ernie on the soccer field as planned, playing with his friend Pete. Their coach, Tony, who is from Korea, didn’t show up, which has never happened before. Ernie asks how the presidential announcement will impact Tia Luna and Vali hushes him—the topic is dangerous in front of people other than Kenna or some of Mami’s friends.

Vali and Kenna walk toward Uncle Jimi’s, where they go after school most days to do homework and eat French fries while Ernie finishes soccer practice. Today, the shop is empty with Uncle Jimi nowhere in sight. A DF officer appears and scans them. They leave, sad and anxious that Uncle Jimi has been taken. Vali collects Ernie from the soccer field. Walking home, they see a road near theirs blocked off by DF trucks.