The book Smoke by Ellen Hopkins is the sequel to a book I read last year, Burned, which told the story of a girl named Pattyn who spent a summer with a very realistic and loving aunt and ultimately kills her father out of resentment for an abusive childhood. Smoke tells about her life on the run from authorities. She helps a lady on a bus, Adrianna, retrieve her wallet from a thief, who in turn helps Pattyn by letting her stay with her family in a trailer park. While Pattyn stays with them, she learns that Adrianna's parents snuck out of Mexico to give her older brother a better life when he was born.
      I think this shows a political connection to the world right now, with the similar stories of illegal immigrants we hear on the news. These people come here to escape poverty and/or danger at home, but aren't able to do so legally whether it's because the process of doing so that our government has available is too difficult to do, or because their own government does not allow them the opportunity. This problem is relevant in the book because the brother, Angel, is only able to find work on a ranch that just barely pays enough to get through college. He also mentions in the book that even after that, he has no idea what he might be able to do once he is done with school, seeing that he is still living with his family in a trailer.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/188382-criminal-illegal-aliens-deported-in-2011/