Oooh, this is good one!

Ahem, do any of you remember when Jeff & I got married & I said, "it's so easy & cheap to get married in Arlington?" Well...top story on the front page of the Post this morning is about a huge wedding scam perp'd by illegal Ghanians marrying U.S. citizens. And where was the hot spot for this scam? Why Arlington Country Courthouse, the same place where we got our marriage license & eventually our marriage certificate. Some alert clerks noticed funny behavior in license applicants - such as not even sitting with their intended or appearing distant to same. Then started noticing those same couples returning shortly for divorces - including paperwork with the same mistakes as others. Hmmm. Provocative. Evidently, not only State but Federal gov't got involved in catching these guys & prosecuting (which is ongoing at this moment). This surprises me to no end as I know (and have stated on this site) that Arlington is soft on immigration law enforcement.

This quote says it all:

"Along the East Coast and all the way to West Africa,...the word had spread: If you are in the United States illegally, go to Arlington. It's easy to get married in Virginia, because marriage laws are relatively lax." (WaPo, 11/13/06, pA1)

Yeh. Well, I guess Ghanians are "bad" illegals and the hordes of hispanics are "good" illegals? No?

Technorati topics: immigration