Oregon, where Portland was located, was itself a "sanctuary state," with relatively lenient immigration policies.
For Nick, if all he wanted was to help a girl smuggled in from Eastern Europe or somewhere else get a green card, all it would take was a small personal sacrifice: a sham marriage would do the job.
The problem was that Dahlia was not simply an illegal immigrant. She was an undocumented person with no identity records anywhere in this world.
Buying a "clean" Social Security number on the black market would not cost much, but there was little point in doing so.
Identity theft was a short-term measure. Once a federal investigation was involved, exposure was only a matter of time.
Although the federal government looked like a giant amateur operation most of the time, fabricating a real identity from scratch that could withstand scrutiny was extraordinarily difficult.
At least, Nick's current standing as a mere Portland police officer was nowhere near enough to accomplish it.
Naturally, he thought of Monroe. According to what Monroe had told him before, Wesen creatures had long since integrated into human society over the centuries, whether willingly or otherwise.
Perhaps the existence of Grimms, or perhaps the rapid progress of human society, had made the Wesen realize that using the traits that made them superior to ordinary humans in certain respects, while keeping their identities hidden, actually let them better enjoy the resulting benefits.
According to legend, Wesen creatures had once been descendants of the ancient gods. For centuries, they had followed the will of the "gods," fighting for them under the leadership of members of the "royal families."
But as this world entered an age of fading magic, the gods' power began to wane. With the rise of monotheism, especially after the repeated Crusades, the