WACO (September 3, 2015) A Kenyan man was ordered detained Wednesday after he appeared in federal magistrate’s court on a charge of marriage fraud in connection with an immigration law violation.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey C. Manske ordered Edwin Mureithi Itune to remain in federal custody without bond pending a preliminary hearing set on September 9 on a charge that Itune arranged a marriage to a U.S. citizen for the purpose of evading immigration laws, a federal court document said.
A criminal complaint issued against Itune says on August 14, 2007, Itune came to the United States from his home country of Kenya as a non-immigrant student and was granted a visa, but that status was revoked after he stopped going to school.
In November 2010, Itune married a U.S. citizen in Dallas and applied for immigration benefits.
The complaint goes on to say that on May 14, 2013, the woman in the marriage gave government agents a sworn statement that said her marriage to Itune was purely for the purpose of evading immigration laws.
Then on June 11, 2015, Itune, himself, admitted to federal agents with the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, at Fort Hood, that his marriage was intended only for financial gain and not for love, the complaint says.
