Washington, D.C. - Today U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) stood in the Oval Office today as President Bush signed into law legislation containing provisions Larsen ushered through Congress to protect mail-order brides by safeguarding the International Marriage Broker industry. Provisions of Larsen’s bill were included in the Violence Against Women Act as part of the Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2006 through 2009 that passed the House and Senate in December.

“Since coming to Congress, I have worked to protect women by safeguarding the mail-order bride industry,” Larsen said. 

“This legislation is really a testament and memorial to Anastasia King and Susanna Blackwell and all the women like them whose lives could have been saved if these protections had been in place when they needed them,” Larsen commented.

Larsen first introduced the bill during the 108th Congress and built up bipartisan support for the measure. In September 2005, he joined with Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) to reintroduce the bill in the House. U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell and Sam Brownback (R-KS) led the fight in the Senate. Larsen and Cantwell became aware of the issue after Anastasia King and Susanna Blackwell, Washington state mail-order brides, were murdered by their husbands. The murders highlighted a growing nationwide trend of abuse.

Each year 8,000 to 12,000 U.S. men find foreign wives through for-profit international marriage brokers (IMBs). A 2003 study found that over 50 percent of legal assistance providers serving battered immigrant women had helped women who met their abusers through IMBs. Often these foreign fiancées cannot access credible information about their prospective spouses’ criminal and marital histories and do not know the legal rights and resources available to U.S. victims of domestic violence.

He continued, “This bill ends what I call the wife lottery that allowed men to apply for multiple foreign fiancée visas at a time and then marry whichever woman’s visa was approved first.”

Highlights affecting IMBs included in the Department of Justice bill:

· Prevents men from becoming serial petitioners for foreign fiancées (i.e. a U.S. client can only apply for one foreign fiancée visa (K visa) at a time; Limits the U.S. client to a total of three fiancée visas. Upon application for a fourth fiancée visa, the Department of Homeland Security must take a closer look at the U.S. applicant);

· Creates an informational brochure for U.S. consulates to provide to women that explains the legal rights and resources available to immigrant victims of domestic abuse and other crimes and explains the illegality of marriage fraud (i.e. knowingly entering a marriage solely to obtain an immigration benefit, and U.S. legal obligations regarding child support);

· Requires K visa petitioners to answer a question about certain criminal convictions on the K application form, which would then be shared with the foreign fiancée;

· Authorizes U.S. consulates to share with foreign fiancées any criminal background information obtained by the federal government through checks it already runs on K visa petitioners.