MAIL ORDER BRIDES industry
After the gunfire ceased, three women died and the man who met one of them through a mail order brides catalog was charged in their murders. A simple question arose: Why was he permitted to import mail order brides with such ease? The March 2 murders of Phoebe Dizon, Veronica Johnson and Susana Blackwell have focused attention on the mail order brides industry - which the Philippine government says is a scourge that exploits its women, an embarrassment to immigrants here and a moneymaker for a handful of businesses that connect marriage-minded American men with foreign mail order brides desperate to leave their impoverished countries. Many are clamoring for government to keep better tabs on the mail order brides industry. Any regulation would be more than what exists now.
Mail order brides agencies not regulated
"No agency regulates this business. Nobody," said the owner of one of the largest mail order brides businesses that operate nationally. "Who regulates the dating business in the United States? It's kind of the same thing, isn't it?" said Chuck Harwood, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Seattle office. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has been dragged unwillingly into monitoring mail order bride weddings. Since the end of World War II, U.S. veterans have returned with foreign-born spouses. In the 1960s, fraud cases began to crop up as foreign nationals discovered that marrying an American put them in the express lane to permanent U.S. residency.
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