Speech #990171701

President. what is the quickest and easiest method to enter the United States legally? By marrying a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien. Under our immigration laws. spouses are given special priority in the preference system and are allowed to immigrate faster than anyone else. Because of the special place spouses hold in our immigration pecking order. they are allowed to "leapfrog" ahead of brothers and sisters and others in the preference system who must endure lengthy waits. For example. brothers and sisters of United States citizens awaiting United States immigrant visas from the Philippines must wait more than 10 years to enter legally. Those from Mexico face a 9year wait and those from Hong Kong a 7- to 13year wait. According to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. 149.296 people entered the United States as spouses of U.S. citizens or permanent resident aliens in 1984. a 43percent increase since 1977. While it is difficult to determine exactly how many of these were fraudulent marriages. the INSs internal surveys show that 30 percent of all petitions they receive involve suspect marital relationships. Our Nations policy of giving spouses first preference has been widely and shamelessly abused. Immigration marriage fraud has become a lucrative industry which allows an unscrupulous alien to remain in the United States with a green card. Since October 1. 1985. the INS district office in Chicago has investigated 182 cases involving fraudulent marriages. It receives approximately 10 telephone calls and 5 letters per day charging marriage fraud. There are two types of marriage fraud. The first is the most harmful and difficult to rectify. This usually involves an unwitting U.S. citizen or permanent resident being duped by an alien who never intends to remain married but who enters into the marriage solely for the immigration benefit he or she will receive. In these cases usually the U.S. citizen is without recourse because of the scarce investigative resources the INS currently has and because of the difficult legal tests to bring the alien to justice. The second type involves the complicity of an alien and a U.S. citizen who intentionally enter into a marriage knowing that it will be terminated or annulled at some point in the future. Normally. the U.S. citizen receives a sum of moneybetween $500 and $10.000to say "I do" which he or she collects after performing the crime. In June 1985. the Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Policy. chaired by our distinguished colleague. Senator A NAr SIMPSON. held a hearing on marriage fraud. Several witnesses testified about the first type of fraud. They related stories about how they were duped by aliens claiming to be in love but who were only after the immigration benefit. One alien admitted to his American wife that she had only been his "ticket to America" and left her shortly. Another case came to my attention from a constituent in Chicago whose daughter had been the victim of this kind of fraud. Shortly after the new husband had convinced his wife to petition for his permanent residencywhich he received quicklyhe left her. explaining that he had married her only for his green card. Legal battles proved fruitless in this case because of the standard of proof to convict him. The bride was told that she would have to prove that the alien had intended to defraud her from the start.