Immigration Law
Lawyer’s Quest to Marry Results in Nashville Policy Change on Immigrants
Posted May 27, 2008, 06:53 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A county clerk in Nashville is allowing illegal immigrants to marry after a state attorney general’s opinion last week that sided with a lawyer seeking to marry a man without a Social Security number.
The lawyer, Vanessa Saenz, had filed a suit in federal court saying she was denied the "fundamental right to marry the man of her choice,” the Tennessean reports. The suit says a state policy requiring Social Security numbers for marriage licenses denies those who can’t obtain the numbers the equal protection of the law.
Tennessee had required Social Security numbers to make it easier to track parents who failed to pay child support.
Clerk John Arriola of Davidson County said he personally had opposed the state law. "Personally, I think anyone should be able to marry,” he told the newspaper.
Immigration lawyer Linda Rose told the Tennessean that the policy change “is a very big deal.” She said the attorney general’s ruling will allow immigrants who overstay their visa to marry, apply for an adjustment in their immigration status, and remain here while the government considers the request.
Those who have entered the country illegally would still be deported and would be barred from re-entering the country for 10 years, she said. Their new American spouses could seek a waiver, but it would be granted only in cases of extreme hardship.
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Comments
Posted by anonymous - 6 months, 1 week, 2 days, 9 hours, 25 minutes ago
This is going to open up the flood gates of “sham” marriages. I am sure there will be no shortage of women who will be willing to marry an illegal immigrant for a fee. It is not an unreasonable requirement to request a social security number to get married.
Posted by Native NewYorker - 6 months, 1 week, 1 day, 8 hours, 59 minutes ago
This requirement seems to be another attempt of the government to keep records of its citizens especially since It makes more sense to require a social on a birth certificate since many couples do not marry. Sham marriages are easy to detect by immigration authorities and most citizens and non-citizens know that. Anonymous must not realize that most women would not even consider marrying a citizen for a fee, much less an illegal immigrant.
Posted by DinTN - 6 months, 1 week, 22 hours, 59 minutes ago
“Anonymous must not realize that most women would not even consider marrying a citizen for a fee, much less an illegal immigrant.“
Too bad there’s no poll results for this. You might be surprised.
Illegals have a ‘strange’ way of coming up with large sums of cash and too many women are suffering due to non-payments of child support WHICH THIS NEW LAW WILL INCREASE.
No S.S. number? No tracking of Fathers.
Just think of all the new anchor babies we will be supporting in Tennessee! Just great!