Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) applauded today’s passage of his legislation to protect mail-order brides by safeguarding the International Marriage Broker industry. Provisions of Larsen’s bill are included in the Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2006 through 2009 that passed the U.S. House of Representatives today. The Senate passed the bill yesterday, meaning the legislation only needs the president’s signature to become law.

“We finally have federal legislation to protect women like Anastasia King who came to this country hoping for the American Dream and found an American Nightmare instead,” said Larsen.

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.

“These International Marriage Broker Regulation Act provisions will finally put into place commonsense safeguards to protect women like Anastasia King and Susanna Blackwell whose mail-order marriages went terribly and tragically wrong,” Larsen said.

He continued, “This bill ends what I call the fiancé lottery that currently allows men to apply for multiple foreign fiancée visas at one time and then marry the woman whose visa is approved first.”

Larsen first introduced the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) during the last Congress and built up bipartisan support for the bill. In September, 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 brides who met their husbands through IMBs, were murdered by their husbands. The murders highlighted a growing nationwide trend of abuse.

Highlights affecting IMBs included in today’s 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.