Admit impediments

J.D. Lown isn’t the first guy to fall in love with a Mexican, nor the first to decide to be with the one you love, not love the one you (could be) with.  Nor, is it all that unusual that this is a same sex relationship.  But, having been only  recently re-elected mayor of San Angelo Texas (pop: about 90,000) with a whopping 89 percent of the vote, his “defection” has been noteworthy.

I’ve written on the travails of cross-border romances before, though my May 2007 piece, “Amercian Exiles”  was about the relatively less complicated issue of a married (as in legal in all 50 states type marriage) couple, and a woman engaged to a Mexican man.  Glenn Greenwald, the respected Salon columnist and civil rights attorney, has written eloquently and passionately about the specific problem faced by same-sex couples when it comes to immigration.

Nearly all reports on Lown’s decision have been supportive (even — extremely suprisingly — from far right-wing sources like “Free Republic, though Freepers think  gay guy’s leaving the U.S…. or at any rate, not bringing in Mexicans, is what’s positive about this) BUT…

… when even a gay, progressive writer,  Pam Spaulding, headlines her post “TX: mayor resigns because of relationship with man here in the country illegally” there’s a problem.  A big problem.

I can see — from the Matt Phinney’s article in the San Angelo Times-Record — how she got the impression that the unnamed Mexican partner is an “illegal” :

Lown said in a telephone call late Wednesday afternoon from Mexico that he has started a relationship with someone who does not have legal status in the United States.

Lown said he did not want to take the oath of office knowing he was “aiding and assisting” someone who was not a citizen.

“I made the final decision when I knew it was the right decision to make for me and my partner and our future — and for the community,” he said.

But nothing in Phinney’s article says the partner was “illegal”… only that he isn’t a United States citizen. Since Lown met his partner when the partner was a student at San Angelo State University, one presumes the Mexican was on a student visa*… and could have been in the United States on either a temporary visitor’s permit, or was facing the end of his student visa … or it crossed Lown’s mind to do something illegal, like convince his partner to stay without residency papers.

Ms. Spaulding is a writer I respect — she is an important voice in the blogsphere, not the gay blogosphere, nor the progressive blogosphere, but the whole kit n’ caboodle. What she says matters. And what’s disappointing is that even U.S. “progressives” have not been willing to look at immigration issues in general, and fall into the easy trap of confusing “Mexican” with “illegal” with no understanding of the difficulties and whimsical nature of the immigration process.  That “progressive” writers feel comfortable using a term like “illegal” is bothersome enough.  That they either don’t know — or don’t care — to study immigration issues is a huge disappointment, and doesn’t bode well for reform of what’s a massively complicated, ineffective government policy.

* Which appears to be the case, according to ggw59” who commented on Pam’s post and seems to know the (former?) mayor.