generalspeaking

Closing an Atrocious Child-Marriage Loophole

"USCIS [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] is taking action to the maximum extent permitted under current immigration law to highlight special considerations in the adjudication of marriage-based immigrant petitions involving a minor."
"While these are steps in the right direction, ultimately it is up to Congress to bring more certainty and legal clarity to this process for both petitioners and USCIS officers."
USCIS Director L.Francis Cissna

"Everywhere we go, legislators, staffers, domestic violence professionals are surprised we allow child marriages in almost every U.S. state."

"We think of this as a problem that happens somewhere else, and I think that’s where we get the disconnect."

"The bigger question is: Why is this happening for something that seems like such a simple fix?" "How is it that our United States government is essentially facilitating child marriages?"

Amanda Parker, senior director,  AHA Foundation

The Homeland Security Department headquarters in northwest Washington is seen June 5, 2015. The Trump administration has announced new rules for scrutinizing petitions to bring in minor spouses to the United States.

"What we need is strong legislation that closes the dangerous immigration loophole that currently allows children of any age to petition for a foreign spouse or fiance(e) or to be the beneficiary of a spousal or fiance(e) visa."
"We need to stop incentivizing child marriage.

“I’m going to continue pushing and insisting that every state do what New Jersey and Delaware did, and that the federal government take basic steps to address the problem and to stop being complicit and actually encouraging child marriage."

“I’m going to keep screaming until the federal government is not complicit in child marriages anymore. It’s 2019 for crying out loud. Child marriage is an ancient relic from our sexist past, and it doesn't have any place in our society."Fraidy Reiss, campaigner, head, Unchained at Last

Data indicating over 5,000 instances of adults petitioning the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on behalf of minors, along with close to 3,000 instances of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiancees, in a move that is at the present time completely legal, enabling child marriages revealed by the Associated Press, has spurred the Immigration Services to clarify the situation by issuing guidance to adjudicators stressing marriages that involve minors must be given special alert attention.

At the present time men requesting authority to bring in children and adolescents as brides are being approved in a country which is attempting to stem the culturally-approved custom from abroad. The two-step visa process whereby visas are considered then granted by USCIS, and approved by the State Department has enabled mature men to take child brides into the country. In other situations, parental-guided minor marriages through coercion see the child brides sponsoring their adult 'husbands' or 'fiances' into the country.

The attention to the situation that the reportage highlighted has spurred USCIS to take action to flag and vet these petitions --  though by law no set minimum age requirements exist for the person making the request or for the person's spouse or fiance under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Contrarily, a petitioner must be at least 21 years of age to be able to bring a parent into the United States from overseas.

Officials hope that the changes instituted by USCIS, modest enough as they are will help to stem the child marriages entering the U.S, while knowing it will do nothing to stop them since age limits must be set by Congress as well as by individual states. Paying greater attention to these petitions, however, may result in the detection of instances where a child is being forced against her will to take part in such a marriage.

The situation is not one that advocacy groups laud, urging stronger measures be taken to protect children. Trust in the guidance of parental consent, used as evidence that an under-aged child consented to a marriage sidesteps the reality that many parents because of cultural, religious or heritage influences coerce their children into such troubling relationships and this is the issue that urgently requires addressing.

In this Feb. 2, 2016 photo, Naila Amin, 26, looks out from a classroom window at Nassau Community College where she is a student in Garden City, N.Y. Amin, who was forced into marriage at the age of 15 to a 28-year-old cousin in Pakistan who beat and mistreated her, aspires to become a social worker and open a group home for girls trying to avoid or recover from forced marriages. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

Labels: Child Marriage, Immigration, United States, Visas

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, February 17, 2019