‘Thanks for the Ticket’ : Aliens Follow Bridal Path to Enter U.S., Senate Told

Amita Narielwala testified today that she learned foreigners sometimes marry Americans to gain U.S. residency when her new husband suddenly told her: “I married you for a green card. Thanks for the ticket to America.”

Patricia Beshara said her husband made a similar statement, after beginning affairs with numerous women, breaking her jaw and cleaning out her bank account.

“ ‘If you throw me out, 100 women will bring me back,’ ” Beshara said he told her. “I don’t doubt it. The message is out that the easiest way to stay in America is to marry an American.”

The two American women testified before the Senate Judiciary immigration subcommittee, which is investigating a growing problem of marriage fraud by foreigners seeking a convenient way to get to the United States.

Goes to Head of Line

Because the U.S. government considers it important to keep families of immigrants together, a foreigner wishing to enter this country virtually jumps to the head of the line if married to an American.

“Marriage has become the single largest qualifying mechanism for immigration because it is the easiest to pursue,” INS Commissioner Alan C. Nelson told the panel.

According to Nelson, while total immigration to the United States dropped 9.6%--from 601,442 in fiscal 1978 to 543,903 in fiscal 1984--the number of immigrants acquiring legal status as spouses of U.S. citizens increased 43%, from 78,057 to 111,653, in the same period.

Narielwala, of Alexandria, Va., said her family in India arranged a marriage for her in that country with an Indian medical student. She said that after they arrived in the United States, “his attitude changed completely and he didn’t want to have anything to do with me.” She said he left her after three months and moved to Texas.

Beshara, of New York City, saying “it’s not easy to get up and make this statement because you feel like a fool,” told how she met an Egyptian cook in Italy. He sent flowers, gifts and “didn’t want to go anywhere without me. Even my friends said, ‘You picked a winner.’ ”

‘Became Another Person’

After they were married in Italy and came to the United States, she said, “My husband had become another person. He was sullen. He wouldn’t talk to me.”

One day, she related, a woman came to Beshara’s apartment to say she was having an affair with her husband. Beshara said she later learned he had had affairs with about 20 women.

“The INS said they needed proof he married me for a green card,” she said. “(INS personnel are) very depressed people. They hear these stories every day. They don’t have the manpower.”

Beshara conducted her own investigation, produced witnesses who testified that her husband married her to obtain a green card, and finally was granted a hearing after a two-year effort.

She said her husband was issued a deportation order but has appealed.