Green cards obtained through fraudulent marriages are a significant contributor to illegal immigration. The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) this week released a new document called 'Inside the Green Card Marriage Phenomenon.' The report was written by David Seminara, who adjudicated thousands of marriage-based green-card applications for the US State Department in several countries. Marriage, he concluded, is the quickest way to get a green card. Over the past 10 years more than two-million foreign nationals have obtained permanent residence cards by marrying an American citizen.
'Unfortunately...one of the oldest tricks in the book for people who are looking to get to the U.S. or who are here illegally and want to legalize their status is to marry a U.S. citizen,' Seminara explained, adding 'Of that 2.3 million, the overwhelming majority are legitimate relationships -- but there are tens of thousands of fake ones out there as well.'
The marriages, he said, are 'most common in developing countries, the obvious suspects being Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security have nowhere near the resources needed to combat the problem, he concluded.
As Seminara's report became public, an FBI agent trainee from Williamsburg was arrested, accused of entering into a sham marriage to gain U.S. citizenship seven years ago. Yue Cheng was charged with five offenses linked to a marriage she entered into in Las Vegas when she was 19.
The criminal complaint says that she applied to the FBI in Norfolk to become a special agent in March 2007. During training, she admitted marrying a 57-year-old California resident for the sole purpose of gaining citizenship. Her charges include making false statements to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and lying to the FBI.
can definitely see this issue is going to be looked at a lot closer as more americans become aware of the damage illegal immigration is doing.
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