Hard News

With a subject line like "Hard News," you'll be surprised to hear how good this starts off.

Two Sunday’s ago I was married to the woman I've been in love with for nearly 18 years. What's more, she's pregnant. We have a little girl due right on the 4th of July!

It's the happiest time of my life, and also the most excrutiating, and here's why.

My fiance is Mexican. And the immigration policies of the U.S. government are designed to rip families apart and to keep non-native born people out of the country.

She has had a tourist visa for fifteen years, but on her last entry she was denied, her visa was destroyed, and she was deemed "inadmisable" to the U.S. Why? Because they found out she was both pregnant and engaged. They suspected her of trying to get in to get married, which is false (we always planned to get married in Mexico) but it doesn't matter. Immigration officials can rip up any visa they feel like.

She is now in Mexico, and that means I'm in Mexico. Unfortunatley though, I can't stay. In ten days I will need to go back to Michigan where the farm needs me. It's time to put on fertilizer, weed spray, fungicide, time to get migrant housing ready, prepare the fresh pack facility. There's a huge crop of blueberries waiting to be harvested this summer, and I need to make sure that happens, not only to keep the farm running, but to be able to provide for my wife and child. All that time we will be separated. She'll be a single mother until I can get down to Mexico again.

It's tough news, but that's the situation. I've hired lawyers, and they've informed me that we have a three + year legal battle ahead of us, with a 50/50 chance of success.

In the little free time I have, I'm writing. AlbaMar #2 is close. I'd love to get it out before summer, but as always, I want to make sure it's the best possible book it can be before it's released. There's a Balum #10 that I'll be working on this fall/winter, and plenty more coming after that.

So that's the news. That's what's going on.

I hope you're well,

Orrin Russell