THE Department of Labor and Immigration supports the passage of legislation to prohibit sham or fraudulent marriages between non-resident individuals and local residents.
“We support that bill. It’s not appropriate if they are marrying for convenience and not real relationship,” DOLI Secretary Joaquin A. Tenorio said in an interview.
“If somebody is paying somebody to get married just so he or she can have a U.S. immigration status, or if they’re living separately after marriage— what’s the purpose of getting together or getting married? Obviously, its because somebody wants to stay here and be classified as an immediate relative (of a U.S. citizen),” Tenorio said.
House Bill 13-104 aims to amend the immigration fraud statute to include a provision prohibiting sham marriages.
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce, however, opposes the bill saying “the CNMI has no jurisdiction whatsoever over the naturalization of any individual as a U.S. citizen.”
“This bill purports to extend legal determination of U.S. law,” the Chamber said. “The U.S. law already addresses and polices ‘sham marriage’ since 1986,” Chamber President Richard A. Pierce said in a statement.
Pierce said that other than pre-1981 permanent residency, there is no such category as “permanent residency in the CNMI.”
Pierce also said that there is “no hard evidence as to how significant this problem may be.”
The Chamber, he said, recommends that a study be made first on the issue before the Legislature creates any new felony-level statute.
The legislation, introduced in the House of Representatives last April, states that there is “an increasing number of persons entering into fraudulent marriages for the purpose of becoming permanent residents of the CNMI.”
According to the bill, aliens seeking to become CNMI permanent residents pay up to $20,000 to those willing to enter into sham marriages.
