USA TODAY 3/27/2001
Page 3A
Couples rush in for 245 (i) do
By Deborah Sharp
MIAMI -- Love is in the air. Or maybe it's the looming deadline for Section
245 (i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Couples here and nationwide
are flooding marriage license bureaus so they can tie the knot by April 30,
the last day that Section 245 (i) allows illegal immigrants who are married
to U.S. citizens to stay in the country while applying for residency.
Miami's marriage-license manager expects more than 3,000 applications this
month. That's a 40% increase compared with March of last year. Marriage
applications in Manhattan have tripled to 300 a day this year over last. And
in Los Angeles, 13,000 licenses were issued in January and February. That's
an increase of nearly 60% over the same months last year.
''It's been very busy,'' says Yolanda Contreras of the Harris County Clerk's
office in Houston. Marriage clerks there handed out 2,811 licenses in
January, about one-third more than January 2000. The provision, pushed
through Congress in the waning days of the Clinton presidency, allows
illegal immigrants who wed citizens by April 30 to stay in the USA during
the immigration process -- if they start the process by then.
Immigration advocates say most of the newlyweds taking advantage of the
provision are couples facing possible separation. But critics say it
encourages marriage fraud. ''It's remarkable how many people are falling in
love to the tune of immigration law. It's enough to bring a tear to your
eye,'' wisecracks Dan Stein of the Federation for Immigration Reform, a
group favoring stricter immigration control. The law pushed Raul Arana and
Marta Ortiz of Los Angeles to the altar earlier this month. Together for
more than a decade and parents to three children, the couple heard news of
the upcoming deadline and decided to act. ''We'd been thinking about getting
married for the last year. But the law was a catalyst for us,'' says Marta
Ortiz, 36, originally from Mexico.
The marriage will make it easier for Ortiz to pursue her residency while
staying with her Guatemalan-born husband, who is a legal resident. Love, as
much as legal status, motivated their courthouse marriage, Ortiz says. ''Of
course we're in love,'' she says. ''After 12 years? We're definitely in
love.'' Without the provision, illegal immigrants are supposed to return to
their native land while applying for legal status. And they could be barred
from re-entry for up to 10 years. The provision also lets some illegal
immigrants stay while seeking legal status -- but only if they pay a $1,000
penalty for entering the USA illegally and are sponsored by an employer, a
spouse or other close family member who is a citizen or legal resident.
''This is for people who are truly entering into a valid marriage, not for
those entering into a fraudulent relationship,'' says Elaine Komis, a
spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. ''For someone to
just find someone off the street to marry, that's immigration fraud.'' The
federal agency can pursue fake newlyweds. Marriage fraud can result in five
years in prison and a $250,000 fine. However, criminal prosecution is rare:
160 such investigations were undertaken last year, an increase over 101
cases in 1999.
''There is a lot of it going on, but it's very hard to prove,'' Greg Gagne,
an INS spokesman, says of marital fraud in general. ''These can be very
complex and messy cases.''
In Miami's marriage office, where hard plastic waiting chairs and snaking
lines could sap the smile from even the most beaming bride, Leonard Barrett
knows first-hand the messy nature of immigration and marital fraud. Sharing
the line with would-be newlyweds, Barrett came to the clerk's office to file
a small-claims complaint against his former bride. He paid about $3,500 to
bring her from Jamaica for a rushed marriage, he says, after which she soon
disappeared.
''I fell in love, but she had ulterior motives,'' says Barrett, 47. ''If
you're going to marry, marry someone you really know.''
Romantics at heart, many marriage clerks say most of the couples racing to
tie the knot seem legit. As long as couples' identification are in order,
clerks have no legal right to question motivation. In San Diego, where 4,768
licenses have been issued this year, a 17% increase over last, clerks say
only the smallest fraction of newlyweds appear suspect. ''Some couples can
be very 'businesslike,' that's a good word for it,'' says Katie Schramm, San
Diego County's division chief for marriage licenses. ''When you ask, 'What
does your bride do?' and they say, 'I don't know,' you kind of have a
clue.''
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