Guest Column
No Social Security number, no marriage license.
- No Social Security number, no marriage license.
- By Travis Loller
NASHVILLE, Tenn.- (Associated Press - |July 12, 2007)--A federal law that requires people to supply their Social Security number when applying for a marriage license has forced thousands of couples around the country, particularly illegal immigrants, to put their wedding plans on hold.
The law has been on the books for about a decade and was intended to make it easier to collect child support payments. But in some places it has prevented even legal immigrants and some American citizens from getting married.
Some couples are traveling to other states or
other counties willing to issue them marriage licenses.
Jonadad Luque, a Honduran immigrant legally in the U.S., wants to
marry his girlfriend, with whom he has two children, ages 1 and 5.
But the county clerk in Nashville would not issue them a license
because his girlfriend is in the country illegally and does not
have a Social Security number.
"I have a Social Security number, a driver's license and
permission to work," Luque said in Spanish. "We want to get
married, but we'll have to wait until they change the law."
John Arriola, the county clerk in Nashville, said he would like to
see the law changed, but for now he has to obey it.
Federal law requires states to record the Social Security numbers
of all applicants for a professional license, driver's license,
recreational license or marriage license. And Social Security
numbers are not available to those who are in this country
illegally or do not have permission to work.
But whether and how the law is enforced varies dramatically from
state to state, and even from county to county, with some
authorities interpreting the law as saying that only those people
who already have Social Security numbers need to supply them.
Illegal immigrants are encountering less trouble getting married
in places that have established immigrant communities. In Texas
and New York City, for instance, officials ask for Social Security
numbers but do not require them.
The Los Angeles County registrar's office says it does not require
any proof of residency or citizenship status. And in North
Carolina, people without Social Security numbers can present an
affidavit stating they are ineligible for one.
The laws are often more strict in states where large immigrant
populations are a recent phenomenon. In Tennessee and Alabama, for
example, some county clerks are using the law to prevent illegal
immigrants from getting marriage licenses.
Immigration attorneys say the law was not designed to keep people
from getting married.
"There's a fundamental U.S. constitutional right to marry," said
Charles Baesler, an immigration lawyer in Kentucky and chairman of
the American Immigration Lawyers Association's Southeast chapter.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania ruled last month that a county
official could not require a man to prove he was legally in the
country before issuing a marriage license to him and his American
fiancee.
The Rev. Joseph Breen of Nashville's St. Edward Catholic Church,
which has a large Hispanic congregation, said he became concerned
about the number of couples in his parish, some with children, who
had been unable to marry legally.
So the church drove about 20 couples across the state line to
Kentucky for licenses and a civil wedding ceremony before bringing
them back to Nashville for a church wedding.
"We call ourselves a Christian country, but you've got to go to
Georgia or Kentucky in order to get married," Breen said. "We're
supposed to be pro-family."
The Rev. Neil Pezzulo, a Roman Catholic priest in rural Arkansas'
Scott County, said immigrant couples keep coming in with marriage
licenses issued in a neighboring county with a more liberal
policy.
Scott County Clerk Sandy Staggs said state law requires a Social
Security number, but for people who don't have one, her office
also accepts a birth certificate, translated into English, and a
photo ID.
As for how the policy could differ from one county to the next,
Pezzulo said: "My suspicion is it has to do more with religious
and political agendas than an understanding of the law."
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed by HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com) without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)