One of the problems in the immigration business that the Trump administration has not addressed is the messy one of marriage-related immigration fraud.
Our laws, and a lax USCIS, have allowed aliens to marry U.S. citizens and to then, often falsely, charge the American with abuse, which in turn sets in motion the alien filing a self-petition as an immediate relative of the U.S. citizen, producing a green card for the accuser, and much grief for the citizen spouse. My colleague Dad Cadman and I have reported on this from time to time.
As CIS has heard all too frequently, USCIS decides the issue in secret, and the Violence Against Women Act permits the granting of a green card despite fraud on the part of the alien. Fixing the problem at the congressional level is awkward because of the strong lobby support for VAWA, generally, and is difficult and expensive at the administrative level because it would mean the establishment of something like a court system to handle these matters.
Canada has a similar challenge, but it has done something about it. It has created a video to warn Canadian citizens about the possibility of such problems when they marry aliens:
As one might expect from our northern neighbors, the video is understated, in good taste, partially bilingual, and totally straightforward. It was produced for Immigration and Citizenship Canada.
The author is grateful to CIS intern Kevin Berghuis for locating the video.