TEHRAN, Jan 22 -The United States has approved thousands of child marriage cases over the past decade despite criticizing other countries for allowing minors to get married, according to a new congressional report.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC)-The report, released recently, showed that the US immigration system had approved thousands of requests by immigrant men to bring child brides or fiancées into America.
Between 2007 and 2017, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, approved over 5,500 requests by adults to bring minor spouses or fiancées to the US and about 3,000 approvals for minors trying to bring in older spouses or fiancés, according to the Senate report.
In 95 percent of the cases girls were the minors, the data showed.
In one case a 55-year-old man requested entry for a 13-year-old and while other cases involved several people well into their 40s requesting entry for spouses as young as 14 or 15. All of the petitions were approved.
The trend is largely blamed on the Immigration and Nationality Act, which does not specify the minimum age required for a minor to request an adult spouse or fiancée visa or vice versa.
Upon receiving petitions from immigrants, the USCIS only considers whether the age at marriage “violates the laws of the place of celebration or the public policy of the US state in which the couple plans to reside."
Source: presstv
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