The authors tell a story of the effects of state and national immigration policies on one teenage girl, and use that situation to call for change that will benefit her and similarly situated students in U.S. schools. The girl was brought to the U.S. when she was a toddler, attended American schools, never returned to or visited her native Mexico, yet still cannot get working papers for the U.S. The laws therefore vastly constrict her potential and possibilities in the U.S., the authors say.