Friday 23 September 2022 06:17 PM The legal loophole that lets foreigners dupe U.S. citizens into sham marriages trends now
By the time New York businessman Bob Williams realized his marriage to a much younger, buff and handsome South American man was a sham, it was too late. He was down $50,000 and well on his way to a nervous breakdown.
As his marriage unraveled in just a few short months, Williams was in for another shocker. His husband called the cops, alleged abuse, and, in doing so, fell under safeguards afforded to immigrants under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).
That law is praised for helping immigrant men and women victims of domestic abuse, but critics say it also gives marriage scammers an all-too-easy path to securing Green Cards — and hundreds or thousands cheat the system each year.
‘What they do, and it’s apparently common, is they seek out guys they can trick into a relationship to rip you off and get papers,’ Williams, who is in his 50s, told DailyMail.com.
‘And there’s no place for us to go, yet the politicians can't stop bragging about the services they offer the immigrants.’
Federal authorities earlier this year bust open a California-based gang that arranged hundreds of fake marriages for Green Cards for non-citizens
Celebrities and politicians supported the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which cracks down on domestic abuse. Pictured: actress and activist Angelina Jolie with various women senators in Washington, D.C., in February
Federal prosecutors in April said they had busted open a huge immigrant marriage fraud ring that made more than $8 million over five years by arranging bogus unions and filing more than 400 fake applications to USCIS.
DailyMail.com has not used Williams' real name and will not identify the husband, due to sensitivities and legal issues around the case.
Still, his story echoes that of many American victims of marriage fraud — often involving middle-aged men and women, a younger foreigner who wants to live in the U.S., a whirlwind romance and a speedy wedding.
Williams says he met his future spouse on a dating site. It was ‘magical’ beginning and unusually fast — they wed within months and started making plans to bring the groom’s family stateside.
He missed the warning signs: urgent requests for cash for struggling relatives back home and hushed conversations between his husband and his friends in Spanish, which Williams does not speak. He kept on paying the bills, he says.
As soon as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had processed his husband’s work permit, Williams says ‘everything changed’.
They started rowing relentlessly. It emerged that his husband was in a long-term, pre-existing relationship with another man, and he moved out.
Then, the spouse formally accused Williams of extreme cruelty and obtained a restraining order. He pursued his immigration process alone and now lives in another state. A messy divorce was concluded several years later.
Immigrants who marry Americans must typically spend several years living together, jointly submitting documents and going to interviews to show the union is real, and ultimately gaining permanent residency in the U.S.
VAWA provisions, however, allow immigrant spouses to instead show they were victims of ‘battery or extreme cruelty’, sideline their American partner and complete their Green Card process alone.
Claims of domestic abuse are scrutinized, but critics say immigration teams are swamped, little evidence is required, solo Green Card applications are rubber-stamped and the system is open to fraud.
For Williams, aside from the chaotic relationship stress that saw him shed 40lbs and mull suicide, the tarring of his name and the system’s apparent indifference to victims of marriage scams has been difficult to move on from.
‘It’s a cruel lesson in life,’ he said. ‘It sucks knowing others are walking right into it.’
A newly naturalized American citizen stands in celebration during a ceremony at the New York. The immigration system has many checks along the route to citizenship, but insiders warn of loopholes that cheats can exploit
More than 304,000 Green Cards were issued to spouses of U.S. citizens in 2019 — one of the most recent years for which data are available
While there are many cases of
