It’s been a little over a month since 90 Day Fiance saw shocking footage that may have shown Molly Hopkins abusing Luis Mendez during their marriage.
Ever news broke that Molly and Luis are divorcing, and fans have worried that their short marriage would cost Luis his shot at American citizenship.
Unfortunately, Luis has taken to social media to reveal that those worries have been realized.
Over the weekend, former 90 Day Fiance star Luis Mendez shared a photo that, curiously, lacked a location tag.
For ages, he’s been staying with his brothers in New Jersey, and he hasn’t been shy about sharing that data with his followers.
The curious lack of location data prompted one fan to ask, in spanish, if he had been deported.
Luis replied: “Si estoy en DR hace una semana.”
Translated, that means: “Yes, I’ve been in the Dominican Republic for a week now.”
Another follower then asked Luis where he is within the Dominican Republic.
(This follower used the initials RN, as in la Republica Dominicana, which is the country’s name in Spanish — and it’s oddly weird that other languages have other names for each other’s countries)
Luis replied that he is at the capitol.
The Dominican Republic’s capitol is Santo Domingo, which is where Luis was working at a bar when he and Molly first met.
He’s back to square one.
If you’re wondering why his marriage to Molly didn’t automatically warrant citizenship, you should remember that it’s much more complex.
Marriage can put a person on a path to citizenship, but it really just allows them to get a two-year green card — and even then, it’s a conditional card.
Luis was not married long enough to receive one.
Even if he had stayed with Molly long enough for that particular card, he would be at risk of deportation at the end of that two-year period.
Even before the U.S. began implementing anti-immigration policies that shock the world, deporting legal residents and caging children, it is not easy to become a naturalized citizen.
Some suggest that it’s Luis’ own fault that he got deported.
From the beginning, there were people suspicious of why a young man would suddenly become so interested in a woman twice his age that he’d happily uproot his entire life to be with her.
Some suspected that he was a golddigger.
Others suspected that he was just trying to use her to obtain American citizenship.
The tumultuousness of their relationship — which was, at the very least, a verbally toxic and short-lived marriage — proved that marriage, for the right reasons or the wrong reasons, is not always so easy.
Part of the appeal of 90 Day Fiance is that viewers want to see if these relationships can work out.
Cultural differences can be a major factor in the outcome of any relationship. And so can the race to the altar.
As the reality series’ name implies, people with K1 visas have only 90 days to spend in the United States with their intended before they have to either get married or leave.
Viewers also tend to speculate about motives of different spouses. Some non-Americans are eager for citizenship. Some Americans on the show seem to fetishize the idea of a foreign spouse.
Hopefully, Luis will have better luck in love on his next venture.
