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AP: U.S. Gov’t Approved Thousands of Immigration Requests for “Child Brides”

HeadlineJan 15, 2019

A new report from the Associated Press found that the U.S. government approved thousands of requests to bring underage brides into the United States over the past decade, a practice that results in numerous forced and abusive marriages. There is no minimum age requirement when making a spousal or fiancée immigration claim, as U.S. immigration services consider whether a marriage is legal in the spouse or fiancée’s home country. The marriage must also be legal in the state where the petitioner lives, and all U.S. states have either laws or exceptions allowing for a minor to be married. So you had men in their forties requesting and getting approval for 15-year-old child brides to come to the United States to marry them.

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