Illegal Husband

The title is misleading.  My husband is not illegal, not anymore that is.  His status did not change because my country decided to grant him legal status.  Oh no, that was not going to happen.  His status changed because we now live in Mexico.  Now I am the immigrant; I am not illegal, of course, because we Americans are allowed to travel freely into Mexico with a simple passport.  The other way around, however, is a bit more complicated.

I met my husband eight years ago in a salsa dance club.  I was attracted to him straight away, and after dancing together I knew there was strong chemistry; I didn't want the night to end although we didn't dance together until the last song of the night.  He walked me out, gave me his number, and I told him that I would be away in Thailand for a month, but would hope to contact him upon my return.  I did, and was equally as attracted as I was on that first night. 

They are raw, human emotions, and have nothing to do with paperwork, or somebody's legal status in the country.  No, I didn't ask to see his greencard; it didn't come up in conversation.  I felt lucky to find him as I had already loved and lost.  We fell in love and decided to take the leap.  We both wanted a family together and didn't worry about his immigration status; we figured it would fall into place.  After all, it will be a legitimate marriage, with kids and all!

Well, for those of you who don't know, it doesn't work that way anymore.  We will celebrate our seventh anniversary at the end of this year, and we have two beautiful children, ages six and two.  After living in the United States together, as a married couple for all that time, we were never able to change his immigration status to legal.  Apparently those who have entered illegally have no recourse unless they travel back to their country of origen and apply for a pardon.  Doing that, you risk being banned from the United States for up to ten years.

My husband grew tired of life as an illegal immigrant.  He missed his family in Mexico as he was not able to travel back and forth to see them.  He is the youngest of fifteen children, and as you can imagine, has a rather large extended family.  He was tired of not having the same rights as everyone around him, although he paid taxes like a good citizen.  We were tired of him not even be able to obtain a driver's license in order to help me with errands or taking the kids to school and daycare.  We were just tired.

It was time for another leap; a leap back to Mexico in hopes of obtaining a pardon and being allowed back into the United States legally.  Well, unfortunately, we were not that lucky.  He has been banned until 2011.  We now live in Mexico City with his family and plan to be here until he can legally enter the United States.  It has not been an easy adjustment for me even though I have been a traveler and adventurer all my life.  I can only hope that the next few years hold lots of new travel and adventure and allow my family and I the opportunity to explore this beautiful country.  Who knows, maybe we will decide to stay!