Marriage and Morality: Examining the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act

Abstract

This Article examines the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA) through the lenses of race, gender, and the institution of marriage. Legal scholarship about IMBRA has been sparse since its enactment in 2006, however the Act merits further investigation. Created to protect noncitizen women intending to marry U.S. citizen men met through international marriage brokers (1MB), the Act aims to give these women access to information about the U.S. citizens and to educate them about their rights and resources in the event of domestic violence. To do so, the Act regulates the IMB industry and the male clients of IMBs.Looking beyond the purported purposes of IMBRA, this Article explores the historical schemas that inform the "unconscious" of the Act to better situate it as rooted in a discourse of moral judgments concerning race, gender, and marriage. Since the mid-nineteenth century, laws have been enacted to regulate the entry of immigrants into the United States. Notions about race, gender, and moral values were used as benchmarks to exclude immigrants and deny citizenship. To this day, these notions continue to influence laws regulating immigration and citizenship. Specifically, the ideological roots underlying IMBRA can be linked to earlier precedents, which were based on Western notions about race, gender, and marriage. By identifying and analyzing these precedents, we can better understand IMBRA's regulations, and use that knowledge to develop future immigration policy further.