My Name Is Iris by Brando Skyhorse is an underappreciated novel which predicted the US’s current immigration purging.

This speculative novel was published in 2023 and I remember the anxiety it provoked me when I first read it. The titular Iris is a second-generation Mexican-American who is recently divorced and has just moved into a newly bought house in an affluent neighborhood. Iris strongly believes she lives in a meritocracy, that her skin color and that the uncertain immigration status of her parents has nothing to do with her ability to climb the career ladder. By starting over with her 9-year old daughter, Iris wants to distance herself from, her Mexican-American ex-husband and her in-laws, all white-passing and with a longer American pedigree who have always treated Iris like a second-hand citizen. While Iris is trying hard to integrate in White America, her brith family chooses to linger in their otherness and refuses to play the role of the 'model American citizen.' Iris's dreams begin to crumble when the Band is introduced: Pitched as a convenient, eco-friendly device to help track utilities and replace driver's licenses and IDs, the Band is available only to those who can prove parental citizenship. Despite having a valid American birth certificate, Iris is unable to prove who she is, pay her bills or even legally drive her car. Through no fault of her own she begins to be kicked out of restaurants, fall behind on her mortgage and utilities, and becomes unable to keep her prestigious job. And not even her ex-husband can help her anymore; because not even the white-passing Mexican-American family is safe from the long arm of AI-led bureaucracy.

Skyhorse manages to condense in very few words the constantly, aggressively shifting rules for immigrant families, the lack of protections, the abuse they experience, the constant state of fear they live-in. And yes, this applies also to naturalized US citizens, or US-born citizens who can be easily 'identified' by their accent, bilingualism, skin color as not 'North-American White' (a phrase that was used by a xenophobic family member of mine). It doesn't matter how lawful you are, how productive you are; as an immigrant or immigrant-born you will always be vulnerable. The 2025-2026 events have proven this–oh so painfully.

I noticed this novel did not receive a lot of love, and continues to be ignored. Part of the reason for this may be the fact that Iris is pretty unlikable in the beginning. Her desire to melt into White America and disregard her Mexican-ess is pretty hard to stomach at first. But she is quickly humbled and educated about the absence of her privileges. I strongly recommend more people give this novel a try.

And if you have: what did you think about that ending? Was it hopeful? Or did it remove all hope for you? For me it was the latter. And I'd love to hear opinions to the contrary.