U.S. Allows Visas for Child Brides
Immigration officials are approving visas that allow men to bring girls as young as 13 into the United States as their wives or fiancĂŠes:
The government in recent years, has approved âthousands of petitions filed by Americans seeking spouse or fiancĂŠ visas for children born abroad.â
Judicial Watch said that in the last decade more than 8,500 petitions for spousal entry into the U.S. involved minors, according to government figures included in a Senate Homeland Security report released this month.
âIn an overwhelming number of the cases girls were the younger party and in some there were âsignificant age differences,â Senate investigators found. Two were only 13 years old, 38 were 14 years old, 269 were 15 years old, and 1,768 were 16. The remaining 6,609 were 17 years old.â
Among the âdisturbingâ facts, Judicial Watch said, is the agencyâs approval of a 71-year-old American citizenâs visa request for a 17-year-old spouse from Guatemala.
In another, the agency granted a 14-year-old U.S. citizenâs petition for a 48-year-old spouse from Jamaica.
USCIS also rubber-stamped 149 applications involving a minor with an adult spouse or fiancĂŠ over the age of 40, Judicial Watch said.
â U.S. lets in thousands of kids to be married
This is part of a worldwide problem of sexual slavery in which girls are forced into âmarriagesâ with men who rape and exploit them:Â
NPR: Thousands Of Young Women In U.S. Forced Into Marriage
New York Times: Americaâs Child Marriage Problem
PRI: Â The US has a forced child marriage problem, too
Thomson Reuters Foundation: Forced Marriage in America: many women donât know their rights, fear to claim them
TruthDig: Forced Marriage of Children Happens in America, Too
CBS News: The âuglyâ problem of child marriage in the US
Al Jazeera: âTill Death Do Us Part: The Forgotten US Victims of Forced Marriageâ
Girls Not Brides: It Does Happen âHereâ: Forced and Child Marriage in the US
PBS: Uncovering the Problem of Forced Marriage in the United States
Good Housekeeping: Child Marriage Still Happens in America
Vice News: There Are No States in the US that Outlaw Child Marriage and the accompanying in-depth video
Washington Post: Â Why can 12-year-olds still get married in the United States?
Learn more at GIRLS NOT BRIDES.