US says its ok to bring child brides to America!

[jsbhike]

I really suspect this is more about arranged marriages or some variation of slavery versus a scenario where a 13 year old has made a free will decision.

York's wife was 19 when they married so a bit different.
One of their son in law's, who at the time was a semi-retired college professor, filled in for my actual instructor one day.

[Dr. Bullseye]

Child brides are a type of non-consensual relationship since a minor cannot consent to marriage. Also, it is child abuse since a child cannot consent to sex.

[Tx_Aggie]

Child brides are a type of non-consensual relationship since a minor cannot consent to marriage. Also, it is child abuse since a child cannot consent to sex.

^^^ This. Whether or not the child agrees at the time is irrelevant, as they are not in any place to consent to such a relationship (legally or in terms of their mental development). The exception some states allow for parental consent on behalf of a minor is often the loophole that allows these things to happen.

It is entirely different than 20 year old women marrying guys in their 40s and 50s.

[Tx_Aggie]

This quote from the article suggest they were child brides, but not allowed to come here until they are of age at time of immigration. Or am I missing something? Emphasis mine:

Yes, if someone is trying to bring a minor spouse into the US. The problem is the boundary of what is considered "of age" in many states.

Sometimes the opposite is the case. One example given was of a US Citizen married to a Pakistani husband, in Pakistan, when she was 13, and then forced to live with him in his home country (presumably by her parents as she was minor under US law). Her husband was then allowed to immigrate to the US because of the marriage.

The article also discussed the opposite, where minor spouses are foreign citizens:

In 149 instances, the adult was older than 40, and in 28 cases the adult was over 50, the committee found. In 2011, immigration officials approved a 14-year-old's petition for a 48-year-old spouse in Jamaica. A petition from a 71-year-old man was approved in 2013 for his 17-year-old wife in Guatemala.

Most states let 16- and 17-year-olds marry if they have parental consent, and several states — including New York, Virginia and Maryland — allow children under 16 to marry with court permission.

Reiss researched data from her home state, New Jersey. She determined that nearly 4,000 minors, mostly girls, were married in the state from 1995 to 2012, including 178 who were under 15.

[Diamondback]

So some terrorist douchebag can bring his Stautory Rape victim over here without so much as picking up a pencil, but even if I go through the full ring-vows-etc drill with my 40-something Canadian GF it's nothing but bureaucratic harassment from now til Judgement Day asking "Big Brother May I?" I smell more BS than the Fort Worth Stockyards here...

[TomMcC]

I don't know how I feel about this.

If it works it works. If it don't it really don't. Its only been in the last 70 years that people get squicked by May December marriages.

Even God knocked up the virgin Mary when she was 14.

I really don't know.

I wouldn't do it. 18 is the youngest I'd go on paper. Even 25 is too young for me now.

I don't like having too much power in a relationship.

If you're going to speak about God, at least do reverently. You have a penchant for speaking about God in a vulgar manner, maybe you should show respect and fear. God didn't "knock up" Mary...He "overshadowed" her. It's described as a miracle of His omnipotence, not some crass gutter encounter.

[Firefly]

If you're going to speak about God, at least do reverently. You have a penchant for speaking about God in a vulgar manner, maybe you should show respect and fear. God didn't "knock up" Mary...He "overshadowed" her. It's described as a miracle of His omnipotence, not some crass gutter encounter.

How about you watch YOUR mouth. God has done quite a bit for me. You don’t know my relationship with Him and moreover it’s none of your business.

He got her pregnant at 14, had another man raise His son, and then... well you know the rest.
The same God who tortured one of his most obedient on a dare. The same one who promised not to flood the world again but to burn it.

Why should I send you across the river so that you may make Pharisees of other men?
Of all the people in the world He picked a 14 year old Jewish chick.
Why? I don’t know. So many other people and places. Some more advanced. Some less blighted by war and slavery.

And here....,2019 years later, you are making an issue over words.

By any objective measure, I should not even have Him as my God, if any god at all.

But I do anyways, so maybe you should ah you know...

Back off and keep it in your church