Are All Green Card Marriages Fraudulent?

Americans have a standing tradition of being able to marry whomever they choose for whatever reason they choose.

In the history of this country a woman has married a man for financial security without having any loving feelings towards him and the reverse has been true as well. People have married to give their children two parents, and they have married for companionship. People have even married in this country to meet the conditions of a will and thus inherit land or property. Many couples have also had marriages in name only and lived separate lives through out their marriage.

Some of these marriages dissolve within months, others last years and still others last a lifetime. No matter what reason a couple has for marrying all these reasons are considered valid and the marriages are legal. Why then are Green card marriages considered illegal and fraudulent?

An argument could be made that the reasons for these marriages are no less valid than any other reason. Financial security and a desire to live in a country where that security is easier to obtain is the reason many people want to come to this country, marriage seems to some to be the simplest and quickest route to achieving that goal.

As long as both parties to the marriage are of legal age, know the reasons for the marriage and agree of their own free will to marry, then it seems that these marriages are even less fraudulent than one American citizen who marries another for their money while claiming their motive is love.

The argument for fraud seems to be that at the onset the couple agree to be married simply for the length of time required by law. However, since the law states that these marriages must last at least 5 years then this puts even the shortest Green card marriage of longer duration than many American marriages.

It also seems reason that if a couple lives together for 5 years, they just might find enough in common to want to make the marriage last.

If all marriages in this country had to last a minimum of 5 years before a divorce was granted, perhaps the divorce rate of this country would be less than 50%.

While we shouldn’t advocate people marrying for any reason other than that they truly want to make a life long commitment to one another it seems ironic that the government is only concerned that love be a reason for a valid marriage in the cases where an American citizen marries someone from a foreign country.

The true fraud in any marriage comes in when one member of the couple marries the other person under false pretenses be they American or an Alien.

Ask your self which hurts our country and its citizens more. The person who lies and uses deceit to gain something from a marriage or the couple who goes into a marriage with total honesty between them?

Isn’t punishing the couple who is honest with one another, while allowing the person who lied and cheated to get off scot free the true miscarriage of justice?