Infinite Country by Patricia Engel

This is a compact, stirring, surprising, and ultimately thoughtful novel that starts with Talia, a 15 year old who has escaped reform school, where she was sent because she burned a man for murdering a cat. She is the youngest daughter of Elena and Mauro, who at the beginning of the millennium leave their native Colombia for the United States. Exhausted by the violence that has ravaged their country and eager to provide safety and financial security for their baby, Karina, the couple acquire six-month tourist visas and head to Texas. They plan to find work, save as much money as they can and return home better off than before. This goes about as well as you would imagine. The feeling that they will forever be viewed as foreigners in this land becomes overwhelming, and Elena and Mauro decide to return to Bogotá. But when Elena becomes pregnant, they make the difficult choice to stay in the United States, where they will live in fear of deportation but will also cling to the hope of permanent residency and the belief that their American-born son, Nando, will have more opportunities than they do--but at what price for the rest of the family. It is a very well told story.