Washington is blazing a trail to help mail-order brides

[TechBear_Seattle]

Washington is blazing a trail to help mail-order brides
By SUSAN PAYNTER, P-I COLUMNIST

We were the TV home of the sap-happy series "Here Come the Brides" and the real destination of the Mercer Girls.

So it's a proud thing that Washington is pioneering protections for mail-order brides and on behalf of smuggled sex slaves -- a far sadder and more endangered sort of immigrant than the ones marching openly in the streets last week.

Last Thursday, a Virginia federal appeals court upheld the first jury verdict ever -- a whopping $433,500 award -- against an international marriage broker. And the winning legal team got some help from Washington state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles. She was called to testify in a hearing before the trial because she knows this stuff. Kohl-Welles helped pass the first legislation in the country that provides so-called mail-order "recruits" with the kinds of criminal and marital background information that can literally save their lives.

And, in January, President Bush signed the federal International Marriage Broker Regulation Act. It was a bill that U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Rick Larson sponsored. And the announcement came with a thank-you note attached for Kohl-Welles and state Rep. Velma Veloria. The federal legislation was modeled on their state measure to protect the rights of such brides.

The article continues at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/267111_paynt19.html

[Lerkfish]

1. OMG! I had no idea that was going on....

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Me neither

I read the local paper every day, and I am very disappointed that the Post-Intelligencer never covered the story as news; that it was a columnist who writes "about town" stuff that broke the story. Shameful of the PI, but definitely kudos to the state and federal lawmakers who brought this about. (Yes, hurray for Maria Cantwell. That doesn't mean I'll be supporting her in the primary, though :hi: )

[Lerkfish]

3. are there any "good" mail order brides orgs?

I mean, I think its risky enough to wed someone you don't know, but are any of them actually trying to protect these women or are they all snidely whiplash slave traders?
I mean, is this representative of ALL such organizations, or are some of them honestly trying to match people up that are lonely?