In the memoir that traces her experiences of incarceration in Iran and her arrival in the US, Shahla Talebi, articulates how this process oscillates between and through the experiences of both living and dying. While the U.S. becomes a refuge for her, she recognizes how the location is complicated by its continued racial injustice and inequities. Rather than the comfort of a sanctuary, Talebi narrates how it is precisely the discomfort she is made to feel in the U.S. that keep her memories of her incarceration accessible to the point of repetition. It is through the persistent unease of being othered both temporally and linguistically that pushes her to write. In this paper, I argue that Talebi disavows the US as an imagined home free of persecution and instead speaks to the layers and legacies of injustice. I draw from Talebi’s memoir as a point of entry to trace larger questions that echo throughout my engagement with memoirs written by refugees living in the US. Among these questions are: What does it mean to come from a particular history of state-sponsored violence and incarceration and also be situated within a specific historical and racialized context that perpetuates similar violence? Put differently, as structures of state-violence persist, what will this mean for the MENA diaspora within the US as we are positioned in a space of mass incarceration, white supremacy, police violence, and surveillance? In their own writing, how do refugees reconcile with this? Lastly, in what ways can we cultivate a diasporic community that is positioned in solidarity with other marginalized and racialized communities in working towards dismantling systems of violence and oppression?