There was a time when marriages of convenience united royal dynasties across Europe. Now an old marriage of convenience is threatening to rip up Oregon politics.
Cylvia Hayes, the fiancee of Gov. John Kitzhaber, acknowledged this week that she had accepted around $5,000 to marry an immigrant in 1997 so that he could remain in the United States.
Hayes, known as the state’s first lady, and Kitzhaber have been in a relationship for 10 years and were formally betrothed last summer.
The governor, seeking re-election, didn’t know about her marriage. Hayes was 29 and her husband, an Ethiopian national, Abraham B. Abraham, was 18.
“It was a marriage of convenience,” said Hayes, now 47. “He needed help and I needed financial support.”
At a news conference Thursday, Hayes accepted blame for the illegal marriage and whatever fallout will come.
“It was wrong then and it is wrong now and I am here today to accept the consequences, some of which will be life changing,” she said. “And I cannot predict what direction this will go.”
One type of a marriage of convenience is when a person marries a U.S. citizen in order to be allowed to stay in the United States. Such marriages are illegal and can be punished by up to five years in prison and fines of $250,000.
They are also the stuff of romantic comedy, most famously in the 1990 film “Green Card,” in which a man who wants to stay in the United States marries a citizen and a relationship blossoms.
That didn’t happen with Hayes. “We met only a handful of times,” she said of her marriage. “We never lived together. I have not had any contact with him since the divorce finalized in 2002.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched several campaigns against convenience marriage and other immigration frauds.
In an April news release, the agency noted that: “Marriage fraud poses a national security threat, damages the integrity of the U.S. immigration system and endangers U.S. citizens who enter into these fake unions.”
Marriages of convenience are one type of immigrant-related fraud that can include lying on work or asylum visas or overstaying student visas. Collectively they are known as benefit fraud, said spokeswoman Virginia Kice.
ICE concentrates more on organized rings that profit from the practices than on individuals, though there have been some highly publicized cases, Kice said.
According to the agency’s statistics, in 2011, more than 1,400 cases of benefit fraud were initiated, resulting in 461 convictions and the seizure of more than $6.8 million.
Hayes did not disclose the marriage — her third — until forced by a local newspaper, Portland’s Willamette Week. She told the newspaper that she didn’t tell the governor about the marriage until Wednesday afternoon.
The admission has certainly spiced up the state’s gubernatorial race in which Democrat Kitzhaber was considered to be leading over Republican Dennis Richardson.
Hayes said when she told Kitzhaber about the marriage, “he was stunned and he was hurt,” but he is now standing by her.
“And I will be eternally grateful for the beautiful, loving way he has supported me in this,” she told reporters.
The governor’s office had no immediate comment.