There has been many ICE walkouts around the country. In school, it was hard for Haya Mohamed to hear the hate that had spread around so easily, especially around immigrants. Trying to combat that hate, she decided to share her story and other stories of teen immigrants from the Bay Area.
Click the play button above to listen to the story.
STORY SCRIPT:
Sound of Sudanese singer
REPORTER: I’m at a BBQ hosted by the Sudanese community here in the Bay Area. It is in Hayward in a small old building. There are chairs and tables scattered across the lawn, full of people chatting, laughing, and eating. A Sudanese singer is performing, and it's already 11 pm, but the party is nowhere near ending.
Sound of a barbecue
TALA MUTASIM: Um, well, I feel like just being around people who like look like you or just like share the same culture as you, it's like I just feel more welcome.
Sound of barbecue cooking
REPORTER: That's Tala Mutasim; she is one of the many teens part of this community of Sudanese Americans. She moved here from Khartoum, Sudan, when she was three. We usually go to these events together. This community has become a home away from home.
Sound of Sudanese music and Arabic conversations
REPORTER: Being around so many people like me, it inspired me to share my story and how being a teen immigrant has shaped me into the person I am today.
REPORTER: Chapter 1, Sofia the First
Sound of 5th birthday party
REPORTER: I sat around all my classmates while they sang happy birthday to me in Arabic. My mom was behind me lighting the candles and my dad was filming. It was my 5th birthday; I dressed up as Sofia the first. I wore a purple dress identical to hers, with a tiara wrapped around my curly hair.
Sound of 5th birthday party
REPORTER: I don't remember a lot during my time in Qatar, but I do remember the times being surrounded by family and friends. I was born in Qatar and lived there until I was 7, but my family is Sudanese. My family and I moved to America 9 years ago, to Berkeley, California.
Sound of New Year's celebration, people screaming and laughing
REPORTER: Chapter 2, Lunch Box
REPORTER: In 3rd grade, my school had teachers come over and check if you ate your lunch before you could leave the cafeteria and play. One day, my mom made me ful - ful is a Sudanese dish made of slow roasted beans. I remember trying to hide it because I was scared of what the teacher would say, I raised my hand trying to leave and go play. Looking down at my lunch box, he asked me what I had in there. I lied and said “I don't know” to avoid any other questions and now embarrassment. There were other ways I hid my culture, I would lie about where I was from and just say I was "black" because nobody knew where Sudan was, I was too ashamed to say I spoke Arabic because it made people wonder how I could be a black girl who spoke Arabic, it made me afraid to speak of my true heritage.
Sound of kids talking and laughing
REPORTER: A lot of my experiences in elementary school were sheltered and independent. I struggled socially with other kids in my grade so I tried to make up for that academically. My English was poor and not as good as the other kids so I tried my best to succeed in the one thing I felt like I had control of, schoolwork. It felt amazing hearing Miss Barnes, my 3rd grade teacher, recognize my efforts, but also celebrate my culture and language as strengths rather than weaknesses.
MISS BARNES: She's from another culture originally, and every day when she comes to school, she asks herself, "What can I do to learn more?
Sound of teacher recognizing Haya
REPORTER: Chapter 3, The Two-Piece scandal
REPORTER: When my friends asked why I was wearing a long full body swimsuit to the pool when it was 100 degrees, I couldn't confidently say “I feel more comfortable wearing this” because the truth was that I didn't. I think that growing up in muslim countries, my mom and dad didn't understand what it was like to feel or look different from their peers.
Sound of waves
REPORTER: Going into middle school, I discovered social media.
Like any other teen, social media heavily influenced me. Like the style of clothes I wore or the people that I followed.
Sound of scrolling on TikTok
REPORTER: I know, clothing is not that big of a deal, it wouldn't kill me to wear a t-shirt instead of a tank top on a hot day but it wasn't my preference. So, I started to just wear jackets under my cute tops before leaving the house. I didn't want to hide anything from my parents but I hated feeling restricted and out of control of my own body. Other than clothes, my parents and I had a lot of different opinions.
NOREEN PINEDA: I moved here in 2020, and I immigrated from Philippines.
REPORTER: That's Noreen Pineda, I know her through school, she is 16 years old and a teen immigrant like me. She also had different opinions from her parents, like about the LGBTQ community.
NOREEN: my parents really, um, ha- we really had a, like, rough patch on that as a family just because a person in my family member was an LGBT and Q member, e- LG- yeah, LGBT member, and my parents didn't know how to move just because that wasn't traditional, that wasn't normal.
REPORTER: Hearing what Noreen said reminded me of the time my mom parked in front of the rainbow sidewalk in Berkeley, sat me down and asked me if I knew what the rainbow represented. I said no and she explained to me that it represented the LGBTQ community.
Sound of park and car sounds
REPORTER: She explained how it was considered Haram, meaning forbidden in Islam but we should always respect people of that community. I formed my own opinions in middle school after being exposed to diverse friends. I was very open minded and a proud ally despite my parents' thoughts.
REPORTER: I was never a religious person though, I was put in Sunday school at my local mosque by my parents. I absolutely dreaded every second of it, it didn't feel natural at all. I would tell my dad every year before he signed me up “ I am not going to learn anything because I don't care for it” and he said “you will learn if you want to learn”. He would say it was their job to teach us Islam, in a way I understood him because my parents believed in it and wanted to teach us it too, but I couldn't force something that wasn't me.
REPORTER: Chapter 4, Snail Withdrawal
REPORTER: My friends and I share a tik tok account called snail withdrawal. We started posting dumb videos as a joke but now we’re trying to go viral so we can go to Coachella next year. Here are my friends Jaxon Brady and Malia Kallas, talking about how we got our iconic group name, snail withdrawal.
JAXON BRADY: So basically, a few years ago, when we were, like, freshmen or sophomores or something, during the summer we decided to make a YouTube channel off my old Roblox YouTube channel, which had 200 followers. So we were gonna make a YouTube channel, and we made a random name generator, and it was Snail Withdrawal, so we decided to keep it 'cause it was kind of unique.
MALIA KALLAS: Um, I feel like it's very connected to us. I love how we brought it back from the old times and, um, I love it
REPORTER: I am the mom of the group, I can go up and ask a worker a question or for help, just any task that my friends feel uncomfortable doing. Malia is very kind, she's the person I feel closest to. Jaxon always makes me laugh and Danica can light up a room with her energy.
Sound of friends laughing
REPORTER: Finding my people has allowed me to authentically be myself without any fear of judgement, they can make me laugh and smile throughout any situation. I feel like they have allowed me to have a sense of belonging I longed for.
Sounds of waves and talking in the background
REPORTER: Chapter 5, The Lake House
REPORTER: My friends and I are always at Electrify America. My parents both have electric cars so we constantly have to charge before our weekly Dutch bros trip. During spring break, we were charging the car and Danica proposed going to her lake house that next day. It started off as a joke but then it became a whole thing.
REPORTER: These are my friends, Jaxon, Malia, and Danica explaining how the lake house trip came to be.
JAXON: So basically the night before we were like, "We need to do something fun because we never do anything fun." So we were like, "Let's go to the lake house," or Danica said that, and then we were like, "Yeah, let's go." I mean, we didn't really think we were gonna go 'cause our parents 1,000% were gonna say no, but then somehow we all pulled through, and we had to make some arrangements and lie a little, but we got there one way or another
MALIA: I like how spontaneous it was, and it was so fun. And did you go in the lake? Um, I did go in the lake. It was pretty raunchy, but it was worth it.
DANICA VARELA/ JAXON BRADY: Raunchy is just, like, gross and dirty, nasty. Any other thoughts? Yeah, I mean, I'm so happy that we have friends.
REPORTER: We made dinner together and stayed up late just talking and watching “The Ed Gein Story”. The next morning, we left early to go home. I was filled with so much joy and laughter those two days. It gave me a sense of freedom since it was so spontaneous and it was my first time sleeping away from home.
REPORTER: Chapter 6, Heritage
Sound of engine running
REPORTER: I got my license on Halloween last year, it was a week after I had just turned 16. I was so nervous to take the driving test but at least it was Halloween so I had something else to look forward to. It was so fun and free to just drive anytime and anywhere. I started hanging out with my friends more and going to Sudanese community events more often too.
Sound of sudanese singer
REPORTER: Talking to other Sudanese American girls about things our moms would say or our favorite foods bonded us together, we understood each other because we lived in the same environments.
REPORTER: I talked to Tala, my friend who is a teen immigrant from Sudan, about our shared experience of losing our Arabic.
TALA: Like, I, I only knew like as much Arabic as like a three-year-old could speak. And then like- Yeah ... when I got older, my parents tried to teach me, but I was like way too in like American culture, and I was like, "No, like, I hate Arabic. I don't ever wanna speak it again."
REPORTER: Moving to the U.S, I lost a lot of my Arabic as I spoke more English. A lot of my culture was gone or untaught because we were busy adapting to our new home.
Sound of mall parade
REPORTER: As the eldest daughter, I had always thought about my future and the impact it holds on my family’s culture. Between me and my two siblings, I am the only one who can speak Arabic, all the freedom with having my license made me think about my future.
Sound of conversations in Arabic, play area in the back
REPORTER: Are my kids going to be able to speak with their cousins who only know Arabic? I started to ask myself these questions as I got more exposed to the Sudanese community.
REPORTER: It feels good to talk to Tala about topics that made me feel alone.
TALA: talking to my grandparents now, there's, like, a language barrier. Mm-hmm. 'Cause, like, they don't speak perfect English, and I don't speak perfect, like, Arabic, so it's, like, hard. Yeah.
REPORTER: Last summer, I traveled to Saudi Arabia to visit my family. I stayed with my grandma during my time there, she only knows Arabic and I was the only grandchild she had there that she could speak to and converse with.
REPORTER: Experiencing that broke my heart because she always wanted to connect with my siblings but she couldn't due to the language barrier. The thought of my kids not being able to connect fully with family was hard to think about but a burden I felt like I couldn't escape.
REPORTER: Chapter 7, The Walk Out
NBC NEWS: These are some of the images from President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in America We are getting treated like animals because people judge us by the color of our skin And a reality experts now say may be impacting the youngest in our nation Families and children and adolescents
REPORTER: Watching the recent ICE raids erupt all over AmericaI have made it my goal to proudly rep my identity as an immigrant.
NOREEN: This isn't how people should treat anybody at all, and the fact that it's being enforced by the government I feel like kinda made it scary for me and kinda made me kinda wish to go back to my home country just because, um, I'd say my home country was my safe space and, like, I tend to always miss my home country.
REPORTER: I agree with Noreen. Seeing people get deported even with legal documents was scary to see but all I could do was protest, so I did that by joining my school's ICE walkout.
Sound of ICE walkout
REPORTER: It felt empowering, seeing more than 300 people walk out of school to protest against ICE in support of immigrants. Still to this day, I can’t honestly say I am the mo/st confident person within my identity and culture but I have grown in so many ways by seeing others proudly represent themselves.
REPORTER: Chapter 8, Carmen
Sound of Olivia Deans song “Lady Lady” live at concert
REPORTER: I love going to concerts. I've been to Billie Eliish, Renee Rapp, ASAP rocky, and many more. Not only do I love the performance of the Artist but also the community it brings. I recently went to see Olivia Dean. She has a song named Carmen. She talked about the origin of her song.
OLIVIA DEAN: Really and truly, this song is for any immigrant, anyone who's just So I, so I hope you feel it.
REPORTER: When I heard thousands of people cheer when Olivia Dean mentioned immigrants, I felt special and seen. I didn't see people who looked like me or shared the same experiences growing up, immigrants or Sudanese. I feel like I would have been more comfortable in who I am if I did. I hope sharing my personal experiences as an immigrant inspires other teens to stay proud of their unique identities. I asked Noreen and Tala what they would tell their younger selves.
NOREEN: being more open and extroverted and not caring about much about people, 'cause at the end of the day they really won't remember, like, a little, the little any, like, like, nitty-gritty. So honestly, like, talking more, being more outwards and, like, being more confident,
TALA: Yeah. I feel like I'd just tell myself like, just don't, like just do your own thing. Like it doesn't matter what other people think or say, you know?
REPORTER: I would tell my younger self, be proud of your identity and stay passionate about the things you love. Never be ashamed of who you are and never try to dull yourself down to what you think people expect or want you to be.