Speech #1010216009

Mr. Speaker. we will soon consider H.R. 4300. the Family Unity and Employment Opportunity Immigration Act. As a cosponsor of this legislation I urge my colleagues to vote for passage of this bill which maintains family unity as the cornerstone of our Immigration policy. The act amends section 5 of the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendments of 1986 to bring the provision into conformity with other provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Current law prohibits the filing or approval of any visa petition that is based on a marriage between an American citizen and his or her alien spouse if the marriage occurs while the alien Is subject to deportation or exclusion proceedings. unless the alien spouse resides In the United States for 2 years. In place of the automatic 2year foreign exile requirement. the H.R. 4300 would impose a statutory presumption of fraud that would prohibit marriages entered into during the pendency of deportation proceedings from constituting the basis for a visa petition unless the Attorney General is satisfied that the marriage is bona fide and not entered into for the purpose of evading the immigration laws. Section 5 was enacted to insure that aliens who were in the process of being ejected from the country could not escape deportation by entering into a sham marriage with a U.S. citizen. The change in section 5 rendered by this act will in no way diminish the ability of the INS to detect and prevent fraudulent marriages. What it will do is permit couples whose marriages are bona fled and whom Congress did not Intend to punish when It enacted section 5. to demonstrate the validity of their marriage without first being compelled to suffer the hardship and trauma of separation or exile.