We have. had a number of rings. including one recently in the Haitian community in Miami that has been uncovered involving where citizens actually are marrying 10. 12. or 15 people a year with upward of $10.000 a piece being paid. sometimes of course greater sums for that marriage contract to be consummated. The second of marriage fraud is even more invidious for the American citizen or permanent resident alien. and that involves the case where an alien spouse who marries an American does that intentionally duping this person into believing that they are really in love. that there is true matrimonial intent here and. as soon as they become capable of becoming citizens of the United States. of course. they get out of that marriage in some way. The real problem is our Immigration Service is not adequately staffed to be able to handle these matters. and second. even if they were adequately staffed. since we are dealing with matters that come usually through the consular offices abroad. the backgrounds of the parties are not always well known and it is very difficult to document whether the marriage actually is real or fraudulent. What happens is the people get here. they get caught up in the system and we never find out about the fraudulent aspects of it in most cases until its really too late and the person becomes a citizen. Under current law. once a person comes to this country. is granted a fiance visa. gets married. whatever the case may be. to a U.S. citizen. they become virtually immediately a permanent resident alien. and they are entitled to apply for citizenship within 3 years. an even shorter period of time than the normal period to become a citizen once you become a permanent resident alien. Under this legislation we do establish a 2year conditional period on that permanent resident status. during which time the alien spouse may live in this country. work in this country. gets credit for going toward citizenship in that 3 years and everything else. just like any other permanent resident alien. except that before the end of the 2year period is up. that alien spouse and the American citizen or permanent resident spouse has to apply by a petition that is sworn to the Attorney General seeking to remove that condition. thereby giving the Immigration Service and the Attorney General a chance. a second look. at that marriage and to look back and see if it has been annulled. if they are really still together. if in fact there was a fraud perhaps perpetrated. and so forth. The petition on its face is not something that is of great burden to anyone. It simply recited the facts that exist at the time and would require the removal. if all things are equal. of that condition by the Attorney General. If the Attorney General does not grant the conditional removal. then there are all kinds of protections in this legislation for the spouse. There is the opportunity to bring up the issue in any deportation proceeding and to have it contested with the burden being on the Attorney General. and so on. But I think it is a very important provision. As has been mentioned before. we also increased the penalties for fraud in this case. up to $250.000 in fines or 5 years in jail for knowingly entering into one of these fraudulent marriages and that. of course. includes the American citizen or the American permanent resident alien who is getting involved intentionally into these matters. And there is the requirement to meet in person before you get that fiance visa that is so famous for coming across over here. So that in the future. an American marrying someone from abroad is going to at least have to have met that person before they get married. There are a number of other provisions in the legislation. some of which have been outlined by my distinguished chairman and ranking member.
Keywords matched
Immigration visa deportation