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Wanda Geter-Pataky’s New Haven weddings spark calls for action

Umito November 12, 2024

An unrelated story about factory marriages involving out-of-state couples, including Indian immigrants, has sparked calls for an investigation and review of how municipalities handle licenses.

The article, published Thursday, reveals that the number of monthly marriages processed by the New Haven Bureau of Vital Statistics has nearly quadrupled over the course of this year to nearly 400.

The increase comes largely from couples residing out of state, many of whom are brought to City Hall in groups by “frequent traveler” justices of the peace, most notably a Bridgeport politician currently being prosecuted for alleged absentee ballot fraud named Wanda Geter-Pataky. Geter-Pataky performed 114 weddings in New Haven during a single recent one-month period. Nearly all involved couples residing out of state with an immigrant spouse, most often from India. Geter-Pataky walked up to 10 couples a day through the licensing process and then exchanging vows.

The Independent also found that similar waves of out-of-state semi-immigrant couples have found themselves stuck at work in marriage registry offices across the state, from Trumbull to Bridgeport to Southington. A lawyer contacted by the organizers of some of the weddings said they typically involved graduate students seeking permanent permission to stay in the country.

State Senate Republicans released a statement calling on the state attorney general to conduct a “thorough review” of the situation.

The Independent’s article “raises a host of troubling red flags. An immigration lawyer quoted in the article described it as ‘a classic indicator of matrimonial fraud,'” reads the Republican statement, issued by Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding and state senators Rob Sampson and Eric Berthel.

“So, is he right? Is anyone investigating this? This story raises serious questions about our broken immigration system and its impact on Connecticut taxpayers. It also calls into question possible abuse of the system involving non-citizens and potentially vulnerable young women.

In response, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said through a spokesperson that “if these allegations are true, they should be fully investigated and prosecuted to the extent possible.” the law by the criminal authorities.

Kica Matos, who is president of the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Immigrant Justice Fund (IJF), warned against using this forum to attack undocumented immigrants, who do not have nothing to do with this matter. It also doesn’t involve Connecticut-based immigrants.

“It’s not about undocumented immigrants in this country,” she said. “It appears that these are people who are currently in the country legally and are desperate to stay and become citizens. More than anything else, this is an example of how desperately broken our immigration system is .”

A New Haven justice of the peace who stopped accepting offers from arrangers to perform these marriages, Matt Fantastic Loter, cited the unintended consequences of efforts by New Haven (and other municipal) offices to slow down the process of applying for and then obtaining licenses. .

“It is incredibly frustrating that this has forced the office to institute a new policy that makes service worse for legitimate New Haveners looking to get married,” wrote Loter, who still plans 50 to 75 other weddings at the hotel in city per year, in a published commentary. to the independent article. “It used to be a very quick and easy process, but now it’s a crapshoot if there are 10 couples lined up on the assembly line and causing huge delays. … It was so enjoyable for the couples to be able to arrive with nothing and leave married with their certificate in hand in less than an hour, but this is no longer the case and it sucks for the real inhabitants of the city who have to do regular business This n. It is certainly not our business, as justices of the peace or municipal employees, to play detective on the validity of a marriage, and that is a can of worms that we absolutely should not open, but what is happening here is totally absurd and something must change.”

This story was first published on November 8, 2024 by the New Haven Independent.

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Wanda Geter-Pataky’s New Haven weddings spark calls for action

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Wanda Geter-Pataky’s New Haven weddings spark calls for action

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