Here Come Many More Mail-Order Brides: Why IMBRA Fails Women Escaping the Russian Federation
| Author | Christina L. Pollard |
| Pages | 27-118 |
HERE
COME
MANY
MORE
MAIL-ORDER
BRIDES:
WHY
IMBRA
FAILS
WOMEN
ESCAPING
THE
RUSSIAN
FEDERATION
CHRISTINA
L.
POLLARD*
I.
INTRODUCTION
The
business
of
brokering
mail-order
brides sparks
a
tension
between
those who
use
the
services
of
an
international
marriage
broker
and
those
who
recognize
its
potential
for
abuse.
Proponents
claim
that
it
is
simply
a
forum
for
men
and
women
to
meet
each
other
and
fall
in
love,
placing
it
in
the
same
category
as
"match.com"
and
singles
clubs.' Advocates
argue
that
parties
to
the arrangement
should
remain
free
to
make
choices
for
themselves.
2
Opponents
of
regulating
so-called
"international marriage
organizations"
or
"brokers"
("marriage
brokers")
eschew business
restriction
schemes and
any
additional
immigration
restrictions
on
the
influx
of
the
chosen
brides.
3
Advocates for
restriction
of
the
business
cry
foul at
the
practices
of
marriage
brokers.
4
They view
the
mail-order
bride
business
as
one
"of
growing
epidemic
proportions."
5
Members
of
Congress
who
push
for
reform
place the
industry
in
the
human trafficking context
and
describe
it
Copyright
©
2018,
Christina
L.
Pollard
*
Visiting
Assistant Professor
and
Director, Immigration
Law
Clinic, University
of
Arkansas School
of
Law
at
Fayetteville.
J.D.
Seattle
University
School
of
Law
1994.
LL.M.
Georgetown
University
Law
Center
2007.
1
deeply
thank
several
people
who
helped
me
during
this
journey:
Andrew
Schoenholtz,
Rachel
Settlage, Tiffany
Murphy,
my
research
assistant-turned-colleague,
Natali
Magafla,
and my
supportive husband,
King
Pollard.
I
dedicate
this
article
to
my
mother,
the
late
Dr.
Neva
Carolyn
Owens Misner,
who
understood
well
before
I
did
that
my
purpose
is
to
teach
and
write
about the
things
about
which
I
am
passionate.
'Erin
K.
Pleasant,
The
International
Marriage Broker
Regulation
Act:
Protecting
Foreign
Women
or
Punishing
American
Men?,
29
CAMPBELL
L.
REv.
311,
311-12
(2007).
2
Christina
Del
Vecchio, Note,
Match-Made
in
Cyberspace:
How
Best
to
Regulate
the
International
Mail-Order
Bride
Industry,
46
COLUM.
J.
TRANSNAT'L
L.
177,
181
(2007).
1d.
at
200.
4
Id.
at
184-85.
5
Human
Trafficking:
Mail
Order
Bride
Abuses:
Hearing
Before
the
Subcomm.
on
E.
Asian
&
Pac.
Affairs
of
the
S.
Comm. on
Foreign
Relations,
108th
Cong.
5
(2004)
[hereinafter
Human
Trafficking]
(statement
of
Sen. Maria
Cantwell).
CAPITAL
UNIVERSITY
LAW
REVIEW
as
"one
of
the dark
clouds
of...
globalization."6
Some
scholars
indeed
make
the
leap,
with little explanation,
from
mail-order
bride
to
trafficking
and
domestic
violence,
as
though
one
reality
inevitably
leads
to
another.
7
Additional opponents
claim
that
mail-order
brides
are
exploited,
lied
to,
and
enticed
in
such
a
way
that
their
vulnerability
makes
them
impervious
to
the
possible
negative
consequences.
Instead,
the
brides
are
motivated
by
the
draw
of
a
better
life
in
the
United
States
with
an
American
husband.
8
Victim
advocates,
including members
of
Congress
who
believe
the
industry
must
be
controlled,
favor regulating
the
industry
to
ensure
full
notice
to
the prospective
brides
of
the
possible
consequences
of
their
new
adventure.
9
The reality
lies, as it
often does,
somewhere
between these
two
extremes.
Some
matches
result
in
bona
fide,
happy
marriages
that
survive
the
scrutiny
of
the
immigration
services
and
do
not necessitate
911
calls
relating
to
abuse.
1l
American
bridegrooms
have
imported foreign
brides
since
the birth
of
the
United
States, and
a
practice
this
entrenched
in
the
American
experience
is
unlikely
to
disappear."
Yet, the complaints
of
6
Senator
Sam
Brownback
(Kansas) stated
at
a subcommittee
hearing:
[Senator]
Paul
[Welistone]
and
I
both
looked at
this
and said
this
is
one
of
the
dark clouds
of
the globalization,
where you get
in
a
world
that
opens
up and
people
can
travel more
freely
and
the
fall
of
the
wall and
communism
and
people
are
able
to
move.
But this
has been one
of
the
dark
sides
of
it,
and
we
really
have
to
continue
to
be
real
vigilant.
Id.
at
13
(statement
of
Sen.
Sam
Brownback, Member,
S.
Comm.
on
Foreign
Relations).
7
Del
Vecchio,
supra
note
2,
at
181.
8
1d.
at
194.
9
ld.
at
196-97.
'0
Id.
at
213.
11
The history
of
the
mail-order
bride
industry
is
beyond
the
scope
of
this
article.
See
Human
Trafficking,
supra
note
5,
at
14
(statement
of
Michele A.
Clark,
Co-Director,
Prot.
Project
of
the
Foreign Policy
Inst.,
Johns
Hopkins
Univ.); Suzanne
H.
Jackson,
To
Honor
and
Obey:
Trafficking
In
"Mail-Order
Brides",
70
GEo.
WASH.
L.
REv.
475,
482
89
(2002);
IMMIGRATION
&
NATURALIZATION
SERV.,
INTERNATIONAL
MATCHMAKING
ORGANIZATIONS:
A
REPORT
TO
CONGRESS,
(Feb.
1999),
http://library.niwap.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/IMM-Art-IntrtnlMatchmaking.ReportCongrees.pdf
[https://perma.cc/L5YB-FHJY]
[hereinafter
1999
INS
REPORT];
Christine
S.Y.
Chun,
The
Mail-Order
Bride
Industry:
The
Perpetuation
of
Transnational
Economic
Inequalities
and
(continued)
610
[46:609
MAIL-ORDER
BRIDES:
IMBRA
FAILS
RUSSIANS
men, who
simply
wish
to
marry
their
mail-order
brides
and
bring
them
to
the
United
States without complication, were
unheard
by
Congress.
Instead,
Congress
created
another
immigration
law,
the
International
Marriage
Broker
Regulation Act
(IMBRA),
12
amending
a
statute
already
filled
with
restrictions
on
family-based
and
marriage-based
immigration,
no
matter
how
that
marriage
originated.
3
Perhaps
no
entity has the
right
to
take
away
a
prospective
mail-order
bride's
prerogative
to
seek
marriage
in
such a
fashion.
It
can
be
degrading
to dictate
to
a
woman
that
she
may
not
make
such
a
choice.
It
also may
be
unjust
to
categorize
all
men
who marry
mail-order brides
as
abusers.
Perhaps
the
male
prerogative
to choose
a
bride
in
such
a
manner
should
be
protected
as
well.
IMBRA has not
curtailed the
choice
of
men
and
women
to
mate
via
participation
with
international marriage
brokers,
and
the
market
continues
to
thrive.'4
Unfortunately,
marriage
brokers
rarely
present
to the potential bride
a
realistic picture
of
what
she
may
face
in
the United
States.
Brokers
traditionally
were
not
required
to,
nor
did
they
tend
to,
tell
brides
of
the
risk
of
domestic
violence,
nor
did
they
warn
of
the
possibility
of
complicated ramifications
of
failed immigrant
spouse
visa
petitions. 5
And
most certainly,
mail-order
brides
lack
the
opportunity
to
get
to
know their
future
husbands
well
enough
to
discern
possible "red
flags."
IMBRA,
enacted
in
2005,
placed
a
measure
of
control
over
the
industry;
1 6 however,
the
effectiveness
of
this
legislation
falls
short
of
preventing
abuse,
by
eliminating
the
"push
factors"
a
prospective
mail-order
bride
may
face,
and
by
demolishing
the
demand
presented
by
the
American
men
who
shop
for
brides
online.
The
"push
factors"
matter
when
reviewing
the legislation
that purports
to protect the
very women
compelled
to
use
the
services
of
an
online
broker
to
arrange
a
marriage
to
an
unknown man
thousands
of
miles
away.
Many
American women
find
it
inconceivable
that
any
woman would
subject
herself
to
the
scrutiny
and
risk
of
being
advertised
on
the
internet
as
a
potential
bride
without
knowing
what
kind
of
person
may
be
willing
to
pay
thousands
of
dollars
to
make
her
his
wife.
Yet,
something
compels
Stereotypes,
17
U.
PA.
J.
INT'L
ECON.
L.
1155,
1157-59
(1996);
MILA
GLODAVA
&
RICHARD
ONIZUKA,
MAIL-ORDER
BRIDES:
WOMEN
FOR
SALE
(1994).
12
Pleasant,
supra
note
1,
at
315-16.
13
Id.
14
Del
Vecchio,
supra
note
2,
at
180-81.
1
5
Id.
at
196-97.
16
Pleasant,
supra
note
1,
at
315-16.
2018]
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