rssHow common is marriage fraud for immigrants?
Tuesday, November 09, 2010 at 10:07 am
- 16 Comments
Slate had an interesting piece yesterday on marriage fraud and domestic violence, looking into whether a small number of foreign-born brides fake domestic abuse to leave their American husbands and stay in the United States. It’s a topic that has a lot of potential for hysteria: Anti-illegal immigration groups claim fraudulent marriage is a rampant problem, while some women’s rights groups dismiss the idea of immigrant spouses faking domestic violence.
But the Slate piece does a good job of laying out a few perspectives. Hundreds of men who married foreign-born women claim their wives accused them of domestic abuse to exploit the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which allows victims of abuse to remain in the country even if they leave their marriage. Some of the men may be lying, but immigration agents and lawyers say this type of fraud does happen — though it is likely uncommon.
The problem is figuring out whether closing the loophole that allows for this type of fraud is worth the risk of deterring real domestic violence victims from reporting their abuse:
The opportunity for fraud may be a small harm that’s necessary to prevent more serious wrongdoing. Before the act was passed, only an American spouse could file an application for a marriage visa. This meant that an abusive husband or wife could threaten to withhold immigration sponsorship as a tool of control. VAWA tried to change that, by allowing abused spouses, parents, or children of American citizens or permanent residents to “self-petition,” that is, to file for permanent residency themselves. [...]
The relatively lenient standard of proof is in place for good reason. Several decades of research show that the dynamics of domestic abuse make it difficult for women to report and document the crimes against them. A wife may be financially reliant on her husband, or she might come from a culture that discourages involving outsiders in family matters. Making it more difficult for battered immigrant women to get help would clearly be a step in the wrong direction. “I am quite ok with what I believe to be the miniscule number of fraud cases that might slip through an otherwise good, working system,” Alizabeth Newman, a law professor at the City University of New York, wrote in an August 2009 e-mail to a group of domestic abuse advocates reviewing the VAWA immigration provision. Newman has a point: Interviewing applicants and investigating the evidence they provide would be expensive. It may not be cost-effective to weed out the likely very small number of bogus claims.
The broader issue of marriage fraud — foreign-born men and women entering or buying into marriages for the sake of legal residence in the United States, or Americans faking marriage certificates to bring foreigners into the country in exchange for cash — is interesting because of the difficulty of detecting it. Although it’s impossible to say how often fraudulent marriages happen, the Government Accountability Office reported in 2006 that benefit fraud, including marriage fraud, is a serious problem.
The pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies claims marriage to a United States citizen is the easiest and most common path to citizenship. According to one report, about one-third of applicants who show up to their investigation interviews in New York are denied for faking the marriage, and nationwide about 20,000 naturalization applications were denied on suspicion of fraud in the 2005 fiscal year.
There have been some high-profile cases lately: A Harry Reid staffer left his campaign in October after Fox News reported she had faked a marriage for money, and a Mexican actress and her American husband were charged with marriage fraud in April. Other reports involve groups that find American men and women who will marry and petition for foreign spouses for pay, or file multiple visa applications based on fake marriage certificates.
But there are high costs to engaging in marriage fraud. If a visa applicant is determined to have entered into a marriage to evade immigration laws, his or her application must be denied by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (That is, unless he or she is able to prove spousal abuse, as mentioned above.) Immigration agents investigate visa petitions filed by spouses — USCIS even recently instructed its agents on how it could use social networking sites such as Facebook to figure out whether marriages were fraudulent.
Immigration advocacy groups, for their part, argue that marriage fraud should be taken seriously, but say pro-enforcement groups like Center for Immigration Studies miss the point by claiming fake marriages run the risk of allowing terrorists to enter the country. Immigration Impact, the blog of the pro-reform Immigration Policy Center, says the real concern is fighting human traffickers who use fake marriages to bring women to the United States for sexual exploitation and reducing backlogs on family-based immigration so real couples can be united.
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Comment posted November 10, 2010 @ 3:50 pm
I'm an advocate at a nonprofit legal center who routinely files immigration petitions on behalf of battered spouses. To file a petition based on domestic violence, one needs the following evidence, among other things: proof of abuse, meaning police reports, restraining orders/orders of protection, and proof of “good faith marriage”, meaning, in most cases, children in common, assets/accounts in common, etc. I have found in my years of experience that cases lacking in evidence on either of those counts rarely get approved. I'm therefore not sure where the idea that USCIS has a “lenient standard” comes from.
As a side note, as an everyday media consumer, I found the Slate article incredibly irresponsible, misleading, and at times nonsensical. At the very least, the reporter should have addressed the following question: why, if the man featured in the article was indeed happily married to his wife, did he never petition for her citizenship, thereby circumventing the need for her to apply on her own??
This is not to say that marriage fraud doesn't happen. But marriage fraud COMBINED with domestic violence fraud are incredibly difficult to achieve – such instances are indeed miniscule, and even when they happen, they rarely fool immigration authorities.
Comment posted November 11, 2010 @ 5:51 pm
The VAWA immigration loop-hole:
The formula is simple: Pretend you’re in love with someone, get them to marry you, then, a few months later start making unsupported accusations of abuse. The accusations will stick, even if completely unsupported by facts. In no time they’re on the path to permanent residency and with plenty of help from US taxpayers. As you can see from the many stories in this forum, the innocent US spouse often pays a heavy price in terms of psychological distress, legal bills, damage to reputation, and in many cases even a criminal record.
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Why is what these women do so wrong, appalling and nauseating? When I say “these women” I mean each and every woman who is involved in these organizations, in formulating and supporting VAWA, in instructing women on how to make these false accusations and on how to manipulate and abuse an innocent American citizen, the police, the courts, the American support system and the American immigration system, and of course the women who deliberately plan on prostituting themselves and deceiving an American citizen in order to deceitfully make him sign the marriage so that they can falsely accuse him and file a VAWA self-petition.
There is a distinct difference between wrong and right, and just because something is not punishable by law (the false accusations of domestic violence with the intention of fabricating evidence for a VAWA self-petition and abuse the American support system) does not make it right. Specifically, making false accusations of domestic violence in order to fabricate evidence for a VAWA self-petition is one of the most despicable acts a human being can do.
Comment posted November 11, 2010 @ 6:55 pm
My story is much more disturbing and appalling: She was already here in this country. When I met her she claimed to be a domestic violence victim. She said she needed help. I agreed to help her and let her and her three sons stay in my house. I took care of her and her three sons for three whole years because I thought she needed help and that she would be grateful. She was acting so well as the perfect wife that after three years I thought I knew her. I agreed to marry her.
It was amazing how she changed overnight: The perfect wife disappeared and a threatening, destructive, manipulative, lying psychopath was there in her place.
After being married for only three months I had to file for divorce… but then came the VAWA false accusations… she moved to a VAWA shelter and filed the VAWA self-petition.
This whole VAWA business was so appalling that I got very sick… It has been over a year and a half and I am still recovering… imagine how sick I got from it.
Do I want justice? You bet you!!! But I lost almost five years of my life because of her and I also got very sick. How can she ever re-pay me for all the help I gave her and all the damage and suffering she caused me?
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A couple of points to think about when looking for a way to change VAWA in order to remove the incentive for an immigrant woman to deceive an American citizen, prostitute herself and falsely accuse him of violence shortly after they are married in order to get her Green Card:
1. Many people are benefiting from the current arrangement. Apparently the American citizen spouse is the only one who suffers – Although WE know that’s not the case: In reality everyone suffers from the current arrangement in various ways but federal money seems to be the dominating factor. The love of money is the root of all evil.
2. Very few people understand how the American citizen spouse suffers from being deceived for sometimes a substantial period of time and then falsely accused by the very woman he is helping out of love. Most do not care even if they do understand. The most common comment I have heard is: “But YOU married her”. They do not understand that we, the victims have been deceived, that the foreign spouse prostituted herself in the process and ended up accusing us of crimes we never committed causing a great deal of damage in the process.
3. Since we already HAVE experienced the horror of VAWA immigration fraud we are unlikely to be deceived again. When looking for a way to change VAWA in order to remove the incentive for an immigrant woman to deceive an American citizen, to prostitute herself and falsely accuse him of violence shortly after they are married in order to get her Green Card, we would not do it for our benefit but for future innocent potential VAWA fraud victims.
4. If we include among our motives the desire to prosecute the immigrant women for the false accusation, defamation of character and perjury, we will be perceived as seeking revenge and people are likely to deny our requests. Therefore we must adopt a strategy where our motives are to PREVENT injustice and to help future potential VAWA fraud victims. We should under no circumstances be perceived as selfish or as seeking revenge.
5. We should understand and at the same time explain that what we see here is a combination of a very sick law formulated by very sick women which is being abused by other very sick women. Any woman who decides to immigrate to the United States at any cost and plans to do anything in order to get a marriage certificate with the U.S. citizen including lying, deceiving, seducing and prostituting herself is a very sick woman. Some of the women who are currently employed at VAWA shelters and are instructing new women immigrants on how to manipulate VAWA in order to get the Green Card have done it themselves and therefore are equally ill. This type of women should not be allowed to receive federal grants or to determine who is falsely accused of violence.
The following questions need to be answered in order to choose a winning strategy that would eventually get others to listen, be sympathetic, cooperate and help us in our efforts:
How do we explain to others the extent of the damage the American citizen spouse suffers by being deceived to believe that the immigrant woman loves him and intends to be his wife, by being deceived to marry the foreign spouse and then by being falsely accused of violence he never committed?
How do we explain the damage others suffer from this VAWA fraud, for example the immigrant woman’s children, the tax payer, society?
What is the damage to the society as a whole caused by this VAWA fraud?
How to we create a perception that we are doing it not for our own benefit, that we are seeking the benefit of others, of future potential victims, of society as a whole?
Can you help with your answers to the above questions?
Thanks, – Al
Comment posted November 11, 2010 @ 6:57 pm
I have been abused by a Mexican woman with a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. She deceived me to believe that she wanted to be my wife. I provided for her and her three sons for three years. After three years of living together I thought I knew her.
I agreed to marry her because I agreed that she should become legal in this country.
Just as soon as I married her she revealed her true face. She actually told me she never intended to be my wife and that she married me for immigration.
Her two boys, suffering from her manipulations had become very sick and I had no choice but to file for divorce only three months after we got married.
I thought my troubles with her would soon be over, but to my surprise she found a way to a domestic violence shelter – a VAWA shelter. Unfortunately they believed her lies
After a couple of weeks in the shelter she signed a petition for a Temporary Protective Order, falsely accusing me of domestic violence. She abused the pro-bono legal help provided at the shelter. At the court hearing the judge, after listening to her realized she was lying and dismissed her accusations.
To my surprise I was told that despite of her making false accusations against me she still gets to stay in the shelter, and that she still benefits from free housing, legal, psychological and medical services, employment and Immigration to stay in this country.
Exactly a year after I filed for divorce she, assisted by her son and others from the shelter broke in to my house and robbed me of the things they knew were most dear to me.
I respectfully request your assistance in making Congress aware of this case and that proper action be taken to rectify the mistakes made by the VAWA service center.
—–
The following information pertains to:
VAWA service center: International Women’s House, P.O. Box 1327 Decatur, Georgia 30031 Phone: 770-413-5557 Fax: 678-476-6804 eMail: iwh@bellsouth.net
And their client: Martha Laura Granados (DOB 11/14/1966). Please let me have your feedback on the matter.
Thanks.
– Al
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Ref: Martha Laura Granados bellia66 Martha Granados (DOB 11/14/1966)
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I was helping Martha and her sons so much. After her divorce I offered her my house. She and her 3 sons lived in my house for three years. I helped her with so many things: house, car, driver’s license, doctors, surgeries, money.
She told me she wanted to be my wife. I agreed to marry her so that she could be legal in this country. It was then that trouble started.
There is a law in this country called Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Under this law a woman can simply claim that she is a domestic violence victim and she gets all the help she needs: Housing, Legal, Psychological, Medical, Employment and Immigration papers to stay in this country…
She contacted a VAWA agent and claimed there was domestic violence. After being in the shelter for a couple of weeks she signed a petition for a Temporary Protective Order that was full of lies.
When I met Martha in October 2005 she was a Domestic Violence Victim and I wanted to help. I never imagined she would end up accusing me of the same. I offered her and her 3 sons to stay in my house.
In august 2008 she asked (begged) me to marry her because she was out of legal status in the US and wanted to become legal and needed to see her son in Mexico. Again I wanted to help and I agreed. On Aug. 27 – 2008 Martha and I got married.
Immediately after we got married her behavior changed dramatically. It became clear to me that something was totally wrong with our marriage. Martha threatened me to “leave me a present” meaning “send me to jail”. I thought she was under a lot of stress and again I felt pity. On Oct. 5 – 2008 I filed for immigration for her and on Nov. 9 – 2008 for her 2 children.
Martha had managed to create a deep conflict between her 2 children and their own father and now she was working on doing the same between her 2 children and me. Her children’s behavior was becoming more and more unhealthy. When I discussed her sons’ situation with her she lost her temper, and later she would turn that into Emotional Violence in order to gain Immigration Benefits. On November 27 she told her son, Raul to cut off the TV cables which he did in 4 places.
As I realized the situation was becoming very unhealthy I asked her to look for another place to stay. On November 29 Martha went to the police which escorted her and her children back to our residence. On Sunday Nov. 30 2008 Martha informed me that she intends to stay married only for the purpose of gaining Immigration Benefits. On Monday Dec. 1 2008 – for the above reason – I filed the Divorce Petition.
Martha immediately began to look for ways to retaliate against me. She joined the Domestic Violence Program – VAWA claiming there was “Emotional Violence” against her children. On Dec. 19 2008 Martha and her children left our residence and moved to a Dekalb County Domestic Violence Women’s Shelter (International Women’s House, P.O. Box 1327 Decatur, Georgia 30031 Phone: 770-413-5557 Fax: 678-476-6804 eMail: iwh@bellsouth.net). Martha left to the shelter using my 2007 SUV that I lent her.
On Dec. 31 2008 I came to Martha’s sister’s house to wish them a Happy New Year and to pick up my 2007 SUV. When I was driving the vehicle away Martha and her two sons ran out in front of the vehicle in an attempt to forcefully stop the running vehicle thus endangering their own lives and mine.
On Jan. 8 2009 Martha filed a petition for a Temporary Protective Order with Cobb County GA Superior Court – Civil Action 09-1-179-99 – FALSELY accusing me for domestic violence against her and her children. On Jan. 13 2009 when appearing in front of the judge Martha committed Perjury for the first time.
On Jan. 23 2009 the Temporary Protective Order – Civil Action 09-1-179-99 was dismissed by Cobb County GA Superior Court judge – finding Martha’s accusations to be FALSE. At the court session Martha committed Perjury for the second time.
While giving her testimony Martha referred to events that allegedly took place on a trip to Orlando, FL in June 2008, proving that when she asked me to marry her in August 2008 her intentions were dishonest.
On Jan. 29 2009 the FINAL DECREE of Divorce was granted – Civil Action 08-1-11044-40 by Cobb County GA Superior Court judge.
On May 29 2009 Martha appeared at my house and attempted to gain access to the property. When the police arrived Martha informed the police that she was still married to me. By doing so Martha committed criminal trespassing and provided the police with misinformation.
On December 1, 2009 Exactly a year after I filed for divorce she, assisted by her son and others from the shelter broke in to my house and robbed me of the things they knew were most dear to me.
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Comment posted February 17, 2011 @ 3:11 pm
How do you go about reporting an immigrant that commited fraud against your family
Comment posted March 5, 2011 @ 10:41 pm
The US is really am heaven for incessant people like martha. Being a woman alone should not put one in a position where everything works in your favor no matter how mischievious you are. I am a new comer to this country and within a few weeks I have discovered that America is a safe place for women who not only cheat on their husbands, but also make them suffer mentally and materially. When i say this I don’t refer to American women. God bless them, they are far away from such devilish characters. It is mostly the aliens who somehow benefit from the open gates of American democracy and yet abuse their gift by turning against the citizens of this country. Some of them do the same to their own country men, fathers of their children, people who worked day and night to bring this women as their wives to this country. There after the devil in them starts its work and the naive husband is strangled with a wave of blackmails, intimidations, and provacations inorder to set up the men for their pre-planned divorce schemes that leaves the men to crash. My friend, you are lucky in a way to be an american citizen. It is your country. You may have friends and relatives. But think of the many innocent guys from third world countried who are struggling to survivie after spending years in refugee camps; and the very woman he helped to immigrate is turning his life to hell.
God bless You!
The devil will always retain its place at the end!! amen!
Comment posted May 13, 2011 @ 12:47 pm
You are a fool. A woman who is married can obtain a temporary restraining order by simply walking into a police station and saying he scares me. No proof no police reports no nothing.Then a scumbag lawyer like you drags that temporary out by a series of lies and mistatkes and changed court dates just long enough for the case with immmigration to go through. The citizen as no rights with the INS and even when i did my own research got my own private detective and found out she lied about her name to cover up a record for prostitution, When i presented this documented proof to the INS i was laughed at. I was told that they only want to bust the citizen because im the only one that can be fined or jailed. She never got a restraining order that wasnt a temp, because it was a lie she lied on her visa application wich is a felony, She had a record for prostitution wich is automatic visa denial, and she is now a US citizen. Such instances are not miniscule they are abundant and a plague throughout the system. As long as lawyers are profiting and INS agents are able to sit on their asses doing nothing and getting paid for it this will continue while innocent citizens are permanently injured financialy and emotionaly. I used to be proud to be an american but my country completely abandoned me and now i hate the USA
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