New Article on Immigration Law & the Regulation of Marriage

A new article entitled “Immigration Law & the Regulation of Marriage” by KERRY ABRAMS of the University of Virginia School of Law, argues that much of federal immigration law functions as a form of family law. Although the conventional wisdom holds that family law is state law, federal immigration law actually regulates marriages that involve immigrants much more extensively than state family does, often unintentionally. The Article maps the architecture of federal immigration law regulation through the four stages of marriage: courtship, entry into marriage, the intact marriage, and exit from marriage through divorce. It shows how laws that appear at first glance to effectuate immigration policy – including the immigration provisions of the Violence Against Women Act, the requirement that citizen spouses sign an “affidavit of support” in order to sponsor their immigrant spouses, and immigration laws prohibiting marriage fraud – all regulate “the creation and dissolution of legally recognized family relationships, and/or determine the legal rights and responsibilities of family members,” in other words, function as family law. It then offers some suggestions for how thinking about immigration law as family law would change both family law and immigration law scholarship and practice.  The article is forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review.  To download the article, click here.  Kerry solicits comments on the draft; send them to her at kerryabrams@virginia.edu

KJ