Spousal Abuse

[Warren]

Hello Guys:  Here is a short transcript from the www.ilw.com website concerning immigration.
SPOUSAL ABUSE
There are also many types of abuse. Emotional abuse and indirect violence/control are not as easily proved and as the accused abuser is able to attend the hearing, it usually comes down to he said vs she said and who the judge finds more believable at the time. Quite frankly, there are a lot of people, even in the court system, who believe that without black eyes and broken ribs, there is no abuse.

(An Interview with an American attorney who specializes in Fiancé Visas):

Interviewer: "Does the INS investigate spousal abuse
claims?"

RW Attorney: "I'm sure they do."

Interviewer: "Do you know of any such cases?"

RW Attorney: "Yes, just last year more than 20 exotic dancers filed joint I-360 (spousal abuse) petitions each with the same story. They all worked at the same strip joint and had identical stories. The INS decided there must be something wrong so they decided to investigate. I don't know how it turned out but they did investigate."

RW Attorney: "There is a Russian language radio program (in the U.S.) where callers call in and ask questions to this (Russian/American) immigration attorney. This one woman calls in and says "My husband has never abused me but if I call the police on him will I get a Green Card?" (The RW attorney rears back in her chair and laughs) and he said "Yes you will!" (more laughter)"
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bottom line is the USCIS does not want to challenge an abuse claim. It is easier and cheaper for them to grant the self petition (I-360) than not to. The system is set up to hear only one side, the side that is filtered, the side of the immigrant spouse be it a woman or a man. I know of a case that I will be interviewing next of a man who had his marriage annulled because his wife was still married to another man. The bigamy charge, annulment papers and the falsified G-325a biographical was not enough evidence for the local department of I.NS to investigate. The "husband" accused of abuse was told that they could not get involved and would not get involved unless ordered to by a Federal court judge. But he was told he could send his evidence to the Vermont Service Center. He did. He heard nothing for almost a year. Then one day in his mail was a letter sent to him by accident from the Vermont Service Center saying that her self petition as an abused spouse of a US citizen has been approved and she could go to her local service center to get her LPR card (good for 10 years without conditions).

I have seen a lot of people, US citizens, bang their heads against the wall trying to get justice or even a little attention. It's fruitless

My 2 cents. "A word to the wise"       Warren

[William3rd]

Hmmm- that is really interesting.

Out here we know of a paralegal outfit shopping VAWA cases around for a piece of the action. Guarantee of 12 cases for 10K.

If the gentleman got an annulment of the marriage based on fraud and it is not set aside, a ruling of a court of competent jurisdiction that there is no marriage would make it extremely difficult for INS to find a viable VAWA claim. Stranger things have happened. . . .

[Maxx2]

That comes from the transcripts of filmed interviews of the documentary I am working on. It is a series of 5 stories. The first story is from an American woman. The second of a Ukrainian man, a USC who was used as an unwitting mule to bring a RW into the country for her boyfriend. There are interviews with his first ex-wife, eldest son, lawyer involved in the case and an interview the wife of his wife's boyfriend. The third of the man with the bigamist wife who got her greencard anyway despite his proof presented to I.C.E. The forth, I am not supposed to give any details. Finally the fifth, the interviews of an elderly RW widow whose only child died of a stroke and a family friend a distingushed university professor who both blame his death on the stress of false charges. All in all about 20 people interviewed. More keep coming. There are additions of photos, documents, surveillance tape footage to provide proof and some reenactments to liven things up.

BTW I found out that Dan has a sense of humor. When I use the Spell Check "ex-wife" gets highlighted and the suggested choices for correction to is "accusative" and "acquisitive".   

Below is an interview with an American woman who was a
victim of marriage fraud.

American woman: "When I first was doing my legal
research I ran into a class mate an old college class
mate at the law library. She put me in touch with a
lawyer she dated in the past. He was now working on
immigration law and since I was a friend of a friend
when I came into his office the first thing he stated
kvetching (Yiddish) about was the woman who just
walked out of his office. She just sent two women on a
plane to Jordan to marry two men, two strangers and
now he had to start the process to bring them into the
country. She was obviously a marriage broker and this
was his client and his office was in this seedy
Newark, New Jersey neighborhood and it felt like it
was out of this pulp fiction novel."

"That was some of
my first exposure working with an immigration
attorney. Granted not all immigration attorneys are
like that but you do have a large number of
immigration attorneys working on marriage broker
deals, marriage fraud deals and they do tell their
clients to claim abuse so they can bypass the system,
the marriage based system if the marriage isn't
working out or if they can't figure a way for an
immigrant to enter the country they will say "Is there
an American you can marry?" And this isn't stuff I am
making up. This is clearly documented in Congressional
hearings, in the media and with and in all types of
evidence that we are working with"

There is a partyline, many immigration officials don't
admit that marriage fraud is a problem. Many do but
kind of off the record and in little comments. Like
the first immigration investigator I talked to "If I
had a nickle for every story I heard like this I would
be a rich man" Or one of the supervisors at the
Philadelphia office "Oh marriage fraud is out of
control, We can't handle the cases we already have".
There are certain government documents that still say
it is rampent and out of control. But once you talk to
the press office or other offices they say "Why should
you expect immigrant marriages be more successful than
marriages between two Americans?" That is their
partyline. But when I ask for the statistics "OK what
is the average length of these immigrant marriages?"
and compair them to the census numbers they just don't
keep track. So it's a partyline based on nothing on no
evidence and I have seen nothing out there and I have
done allot of research, legal research, research in
the media, investigative research and I have seen
nothing on how to combat marriage fraud"   

[BC]

If the gentleman got an annulment of the marriage based on fraud and it is not set aside, a ruling of a court of competent jurisdiction that there is no marriage would make it extremely difficult for INS to find a viable VAWA claim. Stranger things have happened. . . .

Does VAWA specifically state that the woman has to be married?  .. wouldn't they then have called it VAMWA?

.. just curious discourse.

[ecr844]

Everyone,

   The original post above seems very much like a 'copy-paste' job of one of "maxx's" earlier posts in another thread here. Reads pretty much verbatim to that one...
Food for thought,
ECR844

[William3rd]

The law requires a marriage between the two but now allows the alien to file after divorce.