Ask Me No Questions Final
After the attacks on September 11, a number of people who lived in the United States were faced with infringements on their rights in the United states. As Americans, a number of us just sat and watched this take place while those who we should have taken worry for were nearly prosecuted. Marina Budhos, the author of Ask Me No Questions gives us insight to the consequences that this had on the Hossain family, who originate from Bangladesh. This book is an accurate representation of immigration because of the special registration program, the stereotypes that immigrants face, and the discrimination that those like the Hossain family faced. The first example that displays an accurate representation of immigration is …show more content…
Over the course of about a year, over 110,000 people went through this system gathered from nearly 150 countries. Throughout this process, the U.S apprehended 8 people who they suspected to be terrorists. The special registration program required all male foreign visitrors over the age of 16 and older to register at immigration offices within a certain period of time. Those who qualified for this were divided into 4 different call in groups. In Ask Me No Questions, Abba would have been the only one in the immediate hossain family who would have met the criteria to have been enrolled in the special registration program. Abba was given about 2 months to enroll himself in the special registration program, but as we know, he does not accomplish this goal. Nadira is right in her claim that “You forget. You forget you don’t really exist here, that this isn’t your home.”. In saying this, Nadira is trying to argue the point that when you have assimilated into a country and been able to identify with others in this country about your own culture, then it makes it very difficult when faced with the ultimatum of being registered into a system like the special registration program that will definitely punish you for the crimes that you have been committing for countless years in the past but were not faced with the …show more content…
The most prevalent example of this is seen in the main plotline of the story with Mr.Hossain. We see Mr.Hossain, or Abba as he is referred to in the book by his family, within the first 20 pages. Although we do know that Abba did not have all of his legal papers, we also learn at the end of the novel that the major charge that they are withholding him for was so hurried along the course of approval that the agents didn’t even look to see that they had the correct last name. Even the Judge of the court case himself inquires this; the text reads “‘Wait a minute. I can countenance some confusion here-Vermont, New York, different jurisdictions. But you don’t even have name right’? One of the agents who is squinting at my papers coughs. ‘It appears not sir.’”. As possible as it may be to mix up last names, especially with last names this similar, we can quite easily make the assumption that these agents were professionals, and were likewise well equipped for an issue like this. In theory, this would mean that they would have most things filed electronically or at least well ordered so that an issue like this would never happen to a family, and if it were not as simple as this, then this would just go to show the inferiority of the special registration program that was introduced. But, we will defend the system anyways as it is not
After the attacks on September 11, a number of people who lived in the United States were faced with infringements on their rights in the United states. As Americans, a number of us just sat and watched this take place while those who we should have taken worry for were nearly prosecuted. Marina Budhos, the author of Ask Me No Questions gives us insight to the consequences that this had on the Hossain family, who originate from Bangladesh. This book is an accurate representation of immigration because of the special registration program, the stereotypes that immigrants face, and the discrimination that those like the Hossain family faced. The first example that displays an accurate representation of immigration is …show more content…
Over the course of about a year, over 110,000 people went through this system gathered from nearly 150 countries. Throughout this process, the U.S apprehended 8 people who they suspected to be terrorists. The special registration program required all male foreign visitrors over the age of 16 and older to register at immigration offices within a certain period of time. Those who qualified for this were divided into 4 different call in groups. In Ask Me No Questions, Abba would have been the only one in the immediate hossain family who would have met the criteria to have been enrolled in the special registration program. Abba was given about 2 months to enroll himself in the special registration program, but as we know, he does not accomplish this goal. Nadira is right in her claim that “You forget. You forget you don’t really exist here, that this isn’t your home.”. In saying this, Nadira is trying to argue the point that when you have assimilated into a country and been able to identify with others in this country about your own culture, then it makes it very difficult when faced with the ultimatum of being registered into a system like the special registration program that will definitely punish you for the crimes that you have been committing for countless years in the past but were not faced with the …show more content…
The most prevalent example of this is seen in the main plotline of the story with Mr.Hossain. We see Mr.Hossain, or Abba as he is referred to in the book by his family, within the first 20 pages. Although we do know that Abba did not have all of his legal papers, we also learn at the end of the novel that the major charge that they are withholding him for was so hurried along the course of approval that the agents didn’t even look to see that they had the correct last name. Even the Judge of the court case himself inquires this; the text reads “‘Wait a minute. I can countenance some confusion here-Vermont, New York, different jurisdictions. But you don’t even have name right’? One of the agents who is squinting at my papers coughs. ‘It appears not sir.’”. As possible as it may be to mix up last names, especially with last names this similar, we can quite easily make the assumption that these agents were professionals, and were likewise well equipped for an issue like this. In theory, this would mean that they would have most things filed electronically or at least well ordered so that an issue like this would never happen to a family, and if it were not as simple as this, then this would just go to show the inferiority of the special registration program that was introduced. But, we will defend the system anyways as it is not