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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Immigration law means a borderline existence for U.S. wife of Mexican

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/22/local/me-greencard22

Excerpt:

For Heather, 29, every day is a struggle. The native of rural Kentucky didn’t know how drastically her life would change after she fell in love and married Evaristo Suarez, an illegal immigrant.

The couple assumed that Evaristo, 30, would be eligible for a green card once they got married and that they would raise their family near her hometown. But because he had crossed into the United States illegally more than once, he was denied a visa and must wait 10 years before reapplying to return legally.

So six months ago, Heather and their three young children moved from Kentucky to Tijuana to reunite with Evaristo, who had been living in Mexico since being denied his visa in 2006.

“Even though everybody said all these bad things about Tijuana, Tijuana was my dream to have my family back together again,” she said.

But now, Heather said, 2016 seems a long time away.

During her two-hour commute across the border to work in San Diego, she passes women selling pan dulce and tamales. She smells the exhaust seeping through the windows. She checks the radio traffic report. But her thoughts always return to the family’s decision to live south of the border. Was it the best choice for her children?