Drug Lords Gift

Along with this documentation, Jason sent them a registered letter telling them simply they had it all wrong and to let us know when to meet them in court. If his request that court be held in Golden Canyon for convenience of our witnesses held sway, then this should be interesting, considering the only judge in Golden Canyon was a cousin to one of the Boarding house tenants whom we'd lived with for five, full weeks. The woman most responsible for our marriage reception had been that District Court's stenographer.

The INS balked about the court venue, as you'd expect. No bureaucrat wants to be stuck long in a town of population 623 like Golden Canyon, Montana, particularly over the question of two harmless Mexican girls who looked to have a better than fifty-fifty chance of winning their case, even in a San Francisco court. Jason made certain our assigned judge got a full set of our documentation, so actual court time took less than an hour.

The INS representative handling the case must have never handled anything similar before. She seemed to know nothing that wasn't written on a sheet she referred to for every answer.

One by one the judge questioned and demolished the INS' positions. Jason, I, and my girls only sat there and added clarifications when asked.

At the end of the hour, the judge summed it up for the record:

Anna and I were legally married, according to Montana State Common Law, and directed the State of Montana public records department to issue a valid marriage license, complete with a Certificate of Marriage.

The girls had demonstrated their intent to become productive citizens, shown by their volunteer work at St. John's School and attested to by the school's administration. Same for St George's School and those student mother's affidavits.

The INS was therefore directed to issue green cards to both Anna (Sanches) Worden and Maria Sanches post haste,' provide whatever assistance INS requires to establish a date of birth and age twenty for each, and whatever is needed to get documentation, identification and Social Security Numbers for each.

That I, through my relationship with the two of them, had demonstrated my willingness to sponsor both women as and until they worked their way to citizenship.

The state border photographs, along with the girls' obviously enthusiastic testimony, demonstrated to the court that no Mann Act violations had occurred, so I was off that hook.

Any prostitution committed by these girls was against their will and most of which occurred when they were under age.

And finally, that any of our 'living together' details the INS tried to say was cause for their rejection on morals grounds was less than that commonly practiced by half the population, so therefore should not be held against them—ever.

That inexperienced INS representative obviously knew she'd been sacrificed as dog-meat by someone in her home office who knew the situation: i.e, with a just judge, and there was no winning that case for the INS. I wondered if she might quit the job after she gave the whole case an honest evaluation and realized the bottom line.

As we walked from the courtroom, it happened we met at the door.

"They gave you a tough one," I said. "When the law allows no leeway to do what's right, and if you get a judge determined to do the right thing, you're sunk. Don't take it too hard."

"I'm ...," she started to say, and then stopped, looked down, turned and smiled up at me. "You're right," she said. "I'm glad I didn't win."

"But you did, in a way. You saw justice done."

For that she only shook her head gently. "I could see it in your wife's eyes ... and your sister-in-law's. I wish I'd married a man like you."

"Maybe you will."

"Not many around."

"I think for you there is at least one. Somewhere."

"I'll keep looking. Thanks for the vote of confidence."

So, early the following day we moved out from Mrs. Jenson's Hotel and Boarding House for the second time. I think half the residents were there at the front door for the goodbye and good luck wishing ceremony.

When we'd all waved our last goodbyes and I herded the van out of sight, I turned and looked over at my wife and sister-in-law. Both had tears in their eyes. I, being a guy, was too slow to catch on right away. No tears in my eyes, I'll tell you. For me it was the happiest day of my life.

"What's the matter?" I said, blundering into uncertain territory.

Neither woman answered, but neither looked away. I set the van's cruise control to the highest speed the law allowed and headed toward the best future any guy could imagine.