The American public typically views immigrant "foreign" women as backward, subservient, and quietly accepting of male domination and patriarchal control as the core of their cultural conditioning. Such attitudes emanate from, and in turn reinforce, the fundamental belief that women of "other" cultures are inferior to their American counterparts and perhaps contribute to their own victimization at the hands of their husbands. Such ethnocentrism contributes to the culture of violence that surrounds immigrant women of color in the United States. The Marriage Fraud Act of 1986 and its later amendments, the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, are but symptoms of this pervasive disposition of neglect and abuse that immigrant women suffer in U.S. society. By the dictates of the Marriage Fraud Act, the man ends up being the sponsor and controller of his wife. The "deeming" provisions of the Welfare Reform Act bestow a man with the power to command his wife's eligibility for securing public assistance. The patriarchal cultural structures in which most immigrant women were conditioned have already instructed them in gender roles that are inherently inequitable. In the United States, however, the complexities of the dynamics of abuse increase under discriminatory attitudes and gender-biased laws that apply to immigrants. Only by carefully listening to the voices of immigrant women of color and by following their lead can policymakers and American institutions change the lives of women who have suffered our negligence and ignorance for so long. 16 notes, 21 references, and 5 discussion questions