Maryland lawmakers are pushing for tighter regulations on the mail-order bride industry.
A bill sponsored by three dozen House delegates would require the agencies that pair clients with brides to conduct a criminal background check on prospective clients.
Del. Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, R-Talbot, said the bill would close the loopholes in current federal law and alert would-be foreign brides, who often come from poorer countries, of the criminal history of their suitors.
The federal International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 requires marriage agencies to disclose to potential brides the criminal record of interested clients before they communicate or meet.
Natasha Spivack, who owns the mail-order bride agency Encounters International, said the federal law requires clients to only self-report their criminal histories. Her agency doesn’t do its own search.
Haddaway-Riccio said such a voluntary system is vulnerable to abuse, and mandatory background checks are needed to help the foreign brides have a better idea of who they might marry.
“That way she can at least make an informed decision,” she said.
The proposed bill also requires that agencies provide human rights and immigration information to potential brides in their native tongue.
Women’s rights groups have been critical of the federal government’s efforts at enforcing laws regulating the mail-order bride industry. A 2008 report from the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm, found that overseas brides weren’t getting all the information about their prospective suitors as required under federal law.
Haddaway-Riccio pointed to the 2004 jury verdict against Encounters, which was based in Bethesda at the time but has relocated to the District, as a reason why more oversight of the mail-order bride industry is needed.
In the case, the jury ordered Encounters to pay $433,500 to Nataliya Fox, a mail-order bride from Ukraine who was beaten and threatened by her Virginia husband. Court records chronicled the abuse committed by Fox’s then-husband during their marriage, including him biting her finger and holding a gun to her head.
Spivack said few of her clients have criminal records and many of them are government officials. She said the real loophole in federal law is that it allows foreign-born brides to more easily obtain green cards by falsely accusing their husbands of abuse.
“I would prefer the legislation to concentrate on citizens, men who are without any protection at this point against false accusations,” Spivack said.
