Layli Miller-Muro, Executive Director
O: (703) 575-0070, ext. 547;
C: (202) 246-1844
USA - Constitutionality of International Marriage
Broker Regulation Act is Upheld Falls Church, VA. March 27, 2007 -
On Monday March 26th 2007, in an
important legal decision, Judge Clarence
Cooper (from the United States
District Court for the Northern District of
Georgia in Atlanta) rejected an
international marriage broker's claim that
the 2005 International Marriage
Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) is
unconstitutional. IMBRA is a new law
designed to provide greater
protection for foreign women who marry men
through what are commonly known
as "mail order bride" agencies. Layli
Miller-Muro, the Executive
Director of the Tahirih Justice Center noted,
"This decision sends an
important message to the international marriage
broker ("IMB") industry,
which has worked to resist and evade its
regulation, that it can no longer
keep foreign women from poorer countries
ignorant of the violent histories of
the men who use their services and the
legal rights available to women
living in the United States."
The lawsuit defeated in Monday's decision
was brought by a leading
international marriage broker, European Connections
("EC"). EC alleged that
the law's requirement that IMBs provide
information to foreign women about
their legal rights and the criminal
backgrounds of their prospective
American husbands infringed upon their
constitutional rights. In a detailed
40-page decision, Judge
Clarence Cooper found that "The rates of domestic
violence against immigrant
women are much higher than those of the U.S.
population" and that "IMBRA is
highly likely to reduce domestic abuse - and
may actually save
lives." When considering EC's arguments that the
implementation of
IMBRA would cost them money, the judge noted that "the
Court is confronted
with the classic 'blood-versus-money' analysis, and the
safety of foreign
women coming to the United States is clearly the more
vital
interest."
The lawsuit was an attempt to resist the regulation of the IMB
industry,
which derives its profits from pairing foreign women from poorer
countries
with American men. The requirements imposed by IMBRA
seek to ensure that
women who speak limited English, have no social ties in
the U.S., and are
unfamiliar with U.S. laws are given sufficient information
to decide whether
to enter into a relationship and know where to find help
if the relationship
turns abusive. IMBRA was passed in 2005 with wide
bi-partisan support as a
part of the Violence Against Women Act, after over a
decade of examination
by Congress of the special vulnerabilities of
immigrant women to abuse and
recent attention to concerns about abuse through
the IMB industry.
Another lawsuit, brought in Ohio by a consortium of
IMBs, made similar
constitutional arguments and was dismissed in January
2007. The United
States Attorney's Office and the Tahirih Justice Center
defended both cases.
The Tahirih Justice Center was represented on pro bono
basis by the law
firms of Arnold & Porter (Washington, DC) and Jones Day
(Atlanta, GA). Lead
attorney and partner at Arnold & Porter Randy Miller
noted, "This is an
important victory that decisively protects a historic law
designed to
protect extremely vulnerable foreign women coming to the United
States from
developing countries to marry American men through these
agencies."
For a detailed summary of IMBRA and frequently asked
questions, please see
Tahirih's website at
www.tahirih.orgAvailable for
Interview
European Connections matched a young Siberian woman named Katerina
with an
American man named Frank Sheridan who soon after her arrival in the
U.S.
kept her a virtual prisoner in his home, taking away her
identification
documents and cutting all the phone lines to the
house. During one violent
rage, he beat Katerina and dragged her
around the house by her legs. When
she told him she was leaving
him and going back home to Russia, Frank
stabbed himself and then accused her
of doing it to get her thrown in jail,
only agreeing to post bail if she
promised to return to him and be a dutiful
wife. Katerina fled
instead to a domestic violence shelter where she
remained for nine months,
and endured more than two years of harassment and
threats. While
investigating Frank for aggravated stalking, the police
discovered he was in
Russia looking for a new bride. Later, when a sheriff's
deputy
came to Frank's house to arrest him for another stalking-related
crime, Frank
opened fire, shooting the deputy in the face, chest, leg and
back. The
deputy returned fire and, after 25 rounds of gunfire, Frank was
dead and
Katerina's nightmare was finally over.
Katerina's saga unfortunately is
not unusual. The Court's decision on
Monday notes that many other
"mail order brides" in the U.S. have suffered
similar abuse at the hands of
their American husbands, and that the
"perpetrators of these crimes were
often involved with multiple foreign
women and were seeking to become
involved with other foreign women at or
around the time they committed the
crimes."
Katerina is willing to talk to press about her experience and
feelings about
the legal decision against European Connections.
Contact Layli for more
information.
Layli Miller-Muro
Executive
Director
Tahirih Justice
Center