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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHJM #0217/01 0361351
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051351Z FEB 10
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7483
INFO RUEHPNH/NVC PORTSMOUTH NH
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 8796
RUEHTH/AMEMBASSY ATHENS 0019
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 4795
RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS 8257
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 5169
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 0030
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 4517
RHMCSUU/FBI WASHINGTON DC
RUEAHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC
RUEPWJF/HQ BICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEPINS/HQ BICE INTEL WASHINGTON DC
RUEPICA/USCIS WASHINGTON DC
RUEPICB/USCIS FDNS WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS JERUSALEM 000217 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR CA/FPP AND CA/VO/L/A; DHS FOR USCIS FDNS AND ICE FDL; POSTS 
FOR FRAUD PREVENTION MANAGERS; ATHENS/ROME FOR DHS/ICE, DHS/CBP, AND 
DHS/CIS ATTACHES 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: CVIS KFRD PTER KWBG KPAL IS
SUBJECT:  LOVE AND MARRIAGE:  A PALESTINIAN MARRIAGE AND BENEFIT 
FRAUD PRIMER 
 
REF: 09 Jerusalem 1804 
 
INTRODUCTION 
------------ 
 
¶1.  (U) The single most pernicious pattern of fraud encountered by 
Post is marriage and benefit fraud employed by Palestinian men. 
Under the pattern, individuals exploit certain aspects of Sharia Law 
or use fraudulent divorce certificates to engage in sham divorces 
and then marry Americans solely for immigration benefit.  Over the 
past two years, Post has investigated numerous aspects of this fraud 
pattern, and in doing so developed an extensive network of civil and 
religious authority contacts throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and 
Jerusalem.  Post has revoked hundreds of immigrant visa cases due to 
relationship fraud and confirmed marriage and benefit fraud for 
USCIS through overseas verification requests.  In one such case, 
this fraud avenue was exploited by a convicted drug trafficker to 
escape incarceration.  This telegram explains how marriage and 
relationship fraud manifests, and how Posts and USCIS can 
investigate and counter this fraud. 
 
AN INSTITUTE YOU CAN'T DISPARAGE 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Marriage and divorce in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, 
and Gaza are under the purview of religious courts (primarily Sharia 
Courts, Ecclesiastical Courts, and Rabbinical courts).  There are 45 
regular Sharia Courts in the West Bank and Gaza, each covering a 
discrete geographical area.  In the West Bank, divorce is relatively 
uncommon.  According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics 
2009 Statistical Atlas of Palestine, 52.4 percent of Palestinians in 
the West Bank and 50.7 in Gaza are married, while only 0.6 percent 
in both the West Bank and Gaza are divorced. 
 
TRY, TRY, TRY TO SEPARATE THEM, IT'S AN ILLUSION 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶3.  (U) The marriage and relationship fraud pattern manifests in a 
relatively repetitive fashion.  A Palestinian man applies for a 
non-immigrant visa (NIV), and in addition to other aspects of his 
life, cites his marriage and children as evidence on his strong ties 
to overcome 214(b).  After being issued the NIV but before traveling 
to the United States, the man and his wife visit a Sharia Court and 
divorce.  They then remarry a short time later (in some cases the 
same day).  NOTE:  In most cases, the wife appears to be a witting 
and willing participant in the scheme.  When a couple divorces in 
Israel or the Palestinia Territories, they are obligated to 
register their divorce with civil authorities, namely, the Ministry 
of Interior, MOI.  Their marital status is then updated on their 
identification cards.  Divorced women, depending on a number of 
factors, can receive significant social benefits in both Israel and 
the Palestinian Territories, but they must first register the 
divorce with the MOI.  In most cases that match this fraud pattern, 
despite the paper divorce, the man and wife fail to register their 
divorce with civil authorities.  Meanwhile, Sharia Law in the West 
Bank and Gaza allows a man to marry up to four women concurrently, 
and polygamy is culturally acceptable in villages and conservative 
communities, such as Hebron.  Israeli law does not allow polygamy, 
but unregistered polygamous marriages do occur in some communities. 
END NOTE. 
 
¶4.  (U) After receiving both the NIV and divorce certificate, the 
man then travels to the United States, and shortly thereafter 
marries an American citizen (the petitioner), who either believes 
the relationship to be legitimate, or does so for recompense.  The 
petitioner then files an I130 (immigrant petition) and I485 
(adjustment of status) for the man, who then gains LPR status in the 
United States.  In most cases, the petitioner concurrently files 
I130 (IR2) petitions for the children of the man, using the 
petitioner's marriage to the man as the basis of a 
stepparent-stepchild relationship with the children.  In some cases, 
the man (now an LPR) files an I130 (F2B) petition for his children. 
 
In other cases, the man waits until he becomes a naturalized 
American citizen, and, subsequent to divorcing the petitioner, 
"remarries" the Palestinian wife and files I130 (IR1 and IR2) 
petitions for her and their children.  NOTE:  In some cases, the man 
and his Palestinian wife were never divorced, as Sharia law allows 
for "revocable" divorces which become invalid if the couple 
reunites.  In other cases, the man formally divorces and remarries 
his local wife.  In a third set of cases, the man has never divorced 
his Palestinian wife and presents USCIS with a fraudulent divorce 
decree.  In a final set of cases, the man never divorces but hides 
his initial marriage, and it is not until USCIS investigates the 
question of bigamy does he seek to divorce his wife though a 
backdated divorce decree.  END NOTE. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The latest trend in cases in which USCIS has issued a 
Notice of Intent to Revoke are retroactive divorces, in which the 
man (or his proxy) appears before a Sharia judge with witnesses (or 
their proxies) and swears to have divorced his local wife several 
years earlier (always before the U.S. marriage).  The Assistant to 
the Supreme Sharia Judge in the West Bank recently affirmed to 
ConOff that his judges were aware of this scam being used to 
circumvent U.S. law, but themselves did not have a legal means to 
combat it.  While such divorces are legal under Sharia 
jurisprudence, Post interprets the effective date of the divorce as 
the date the divorce was registered with the court, not the 
retroactive date.  Such retroactive divorces are also a strong 
indicator of fraud. 
 
ASK THE LOCAL GENTRY 
-------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Post usually encounters and discovers this fraud at three 
common points:  during review and investigation of IR2 stepchild 
cases (when the American wife is the petitioner); during NIV 
interviews of the Palestinian spouse (who often identifies herself 
as married on her NIV application); and during IR1 and IR2 
applications benefiting the spouse and child after the 
now-petitioning husband's naturalization and divorce from his 
American wife. 
 
¶7.  (U) The first and best place to counter this fraud pattern is, 
of course, when the man applies for an NIV to visit the United 
States.  As a result of Post's investigation into this marriage and 
relationship fraud pattern, Post's officers now actively look for 
NIV applications that show indications of this trend.  However, in 
many such cases, the man does have strong family, economic and 
social ties. 
 
¶8.  (U) The next best point to counter this pattern is when the 
petitioner files the I130 and I485 for the man.  USCIS officers are 
encouraged to contact Post at jerusalemfpu@state.gov (with scans of 
the Arabic-language documents and the bio page of the man's 
Palestinian passport, if available) in IR1 adjustment of status 
cases in which the beneficiary is a Palestinian man who claims to be 
divorced.  Other indicators that suggest an investigation are:  a 
significant age discrepancies between the petitioner and man; CCD 
notes that indicate that the man was married when he applied for his 
NIV; a lack of common language or religion between the petitioner 
and man; indications that the man and his Palestinian wife married 
in a Sharia Court in one area of the West Bank (i.e. Nablus), and 
divorced in another (i.e. Hebron); or the petitioner filing a 
concurrent stepchild petition for the man's children. 
 
AND THEY WILL SAY IT'S ELEMENTARY 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Post has close and extensive contacts among civil and 
religious authorities in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.  Post 
can quickly verify the marital status of the man with the 
Palestinian Ministry of Interior if provided with the individual's 
name, date of birth, and local ID number (from the bio page of the 
Palestinian passport).  Additionally, the Sharia Courts in the West 
 
Bank are aware of this fraud pattern, and have demonstrated 
willingness to comb their files to determine whether a "divorced" 
couple has locally remarried, as well as to confirm the veracity of 
marriage and divorce certificates.  Most checks can be completed 
within two weeks. 
 
MARCHESE