A FOREIGN AFFAIR
4629 NORTH 24TH STREET
PHOENIX, ARIZONA 85016
(602) 553-8178 FAX (602) 468-1119
The bullet points listed below are in reference to the recent legislation introduced by both Senator Maria Cantwell (SB 1455) and Representative Larsen (HR 2949). Due to the widespread industry concern regarding this proposed legislation, we have put forth this information sheet to concisely express our position. Copies of both the 1999 US Department of Justice Department study and Marriage, Migration, and Markets, a dissertation by Lisa Anne Simons, are available upon request.
- There is no statistical evidence in existence today that demonstrates a greater likelihood of spousal abuse for Foreign National Clients using the services of IMO's.
- A US Department of Justice study conducted in 1999, as mandated under Sec. 652 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA), demonstrated that there did not appear to be a greater incidence of domestic violence or visa fraud found among foreign nationals using IMO's.
- Marriage, Migration, and Markets, a dissertation by Lisa Anne Simons, presented to the faculty of the Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, concluded that foreign nationals using IMO's are not at a greater risk of spousal abuse. There were also many other interesting findings such as a finding of a pronounced negative bias towards the international marriage industry by feminist groups and the media as a whole.
- No statistical evidence or studies exist that demonstrate relationships between men and women who find their spouses via IMO's are at any greater risk for spousal abuse than those who find their spouses through other means. Therefore, there is no sound basis for the requirement of forcing male clients of IMO's to submit private criminal and marital information to IMO's as well as to each and every foreign national that they wish to simply write or contact in some fashion.
- This legislation, as presently constituted, would exempt large companies like MSN Personals, Yahoo Personals, Match.com and others whose 'primary' business is not International Matchmaking. Although International Matchmaking is not the "primary" focus of these large companies, they advertise thousands of profiles of foreign nationals on their site and receive a substantial stream of revenue based on the promotion of international profiles in the IMO context. There is no reason that these companies should be exempt from any part of this legislation if they are providing IMO services including contact information between US-based men and foreign women.
- This legislation will cause major unfair trade issues. It will put legitimate IMO companies out of business. It will then leave foreign nationals with little or no choice but to use these large exempted companies, or to use foreign-based companies, who will also be exempted (or will not comply with these regulations) from giving out any information about the rights of foreign nationals, or be requesting any criminal or marital information from their clients.
- The legislation calls for a study to be conducted to find, among other things, how many men with criminal records use the services of IMO's. The legislation in and of itself will render the study useless since it exempts large companies like MSN, Yahoo, and Match.com, so the men who do not wish to divulge any information about themselves will simply use those services. This legislation will emasculate the existing complying companies to such a degree that any information gleaned from the study will be useless. There have also been two prior studies done that both show that there is no higher incidence of spousal abuse - there is no need for a third study. In addition, there are serious Privacy Act concerns inherent in such a survey. Have any surveys been conducted to find out in general how many men with criminal records get married?
- This legislation references 'trafficking'. There has never been a case of an American-based IMO being confronted over trafficking in women, let alone an actual charge of trafficking being lodged against an IMO in any court. Thus, there is absolutely no rational basis for this terminology to be included in this legislation. There is no connection whatsoever between IMO's and trafficking in women.
- It is logistically impossible to obtain releases from each Foreign National Client each time a Client simply requests contact information. Upon joining an IMO, the Foreign National Client is given her rights in her native language, and signs a release form to allow contact information to be given out to interested parties. The Foreign National Client understands that she has the right to request a criminal background check on the Client if she is interested in pursuing a meaningful relationship with the Client. If a criminal background check is also done at the time of the Fiancee Visa, which will serve as a safety net for those Foreign National Clients who did not request the information sooner. If a Client writes to 100 Foreign National Clients he will normally only receive 10 to 30 responses, meaning that the 70-plus percent of the Foreign National Clients were not even interested enough to reply to the letter. There is no reason that those women should be forced to read personal criminal history information, if any, about the Client and then sign a release to allow the Client to obtain their contact information. There is also no reason to force the Client to disclose personal criminal and martial information, if any, to Foreign National Clients if there is a better than 70 percent chance that they are never even going to respond to the letter in the first place.
- We have collected well over 2,000 signed petitions from foreign nationals who are in opposition to this legislation. Although in favor of a criminal background check at the time of a fiancee visa, they feel that their chances of meeting someone are going to be severely limited if they are forced to sign a separate release form for each client who is simply requesting their contact information. If a criminal background check is done through the existing DHS and DOS fiancee visa process, that would serve as a safety net for those foreign nationals who might be affected by an abusive spouse. (There are serious constitutional ramifications in this legislation that will make federal judicial review a necessity. To mention a few areas: the legislation is gender biased, the provisions infringe on a client's rights to privacy, the legislation interferes with commerce and unfairly regulates only a portion of a much larger industry)
- According to the Justice Department, approximately 94 to 96 percent of the aliens who are beneficiaries of a fiancee visa petition are not members of, or did not use, the services of an IMO. This means that only 4 to 6 percent of those US citizens applying for a K1 visa for their foreign fiancee actually met their fiancee with the assistance of some type of IMO. Why does This legislation target that tiny percentage of citizens who use the services of IMO's even though it has been demonstrated by two independent studies that the occurrence of spousal abuse is less that that of the general population?
- We do support the existing Washington State legislation and would like to see that legislation enacted on a Federal level. Additionally, we would like to see a criminal background check at the time of the fiancee visa for all persons requesting a Fiancee visa regardless if they used the services of an IMO.
