JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local lawmaker is drafting legislation that would help women escape scam marriages, making it easier to prosecute the perpetrators.
A local woman’s story is the reason for the big push for change.
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Action News Jax sat down with Shawnya, a Jacksonville woman who thought she was marrying a nice, Nigerian minister. Instead, “it’s like I lost myself. I lost myself,” she said, crying.
Shawnya doesn’t want to use her full name or show her face because she’s still trying to put the pieces of her life back together. She got married three years ago, helping her husband get a green card and financially supporting him.
But the marriage was not what she thought it’d be.
“It’s an illusion,” she said. “It’s not real. I think it was a master plan in order to (get) a way into the United States and also a way to help (his) your family.”
She said the man used her money to move his Nigerian wife and child to an apartment in town.
Shortly after that, she said he turned aggressive, controlling, and abusive. That’s when her cousin, Norris Moss, stepped in.
“That’s my cousin,” he said. “I had to get nosy because I saw the sham. I saw it.”
Norris helped Shawnya kick her husband out and get a court injunction against him. He also put her in touch with State Representative Kimberly Daniels, who represents parts of Jacksonville, knowing she’d helped women like Shawnya before.
“She had one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard,” Daniels said. “I just had to stop and give my full attention to it.”
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Daniels took the case to the State Attorney’s Office and says they’re investigating it. She is also helping to get the man deported.
Daniels said stories like Shawnya’s are more common than you’d think. She’s currently helping more than a dozen women across the state in similar ways. It’s spurring her to draft legislation that will help them and other women who find themselves in situations like Shawnya’s.
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“This will give her a support system where she don’t have to get in a portal and wait,” Daniels said about her proposed legislation. “It’ll be a direct expedited system for folk that are in fraudulent marriages, are being taken advantage of, domestic violence.”
It’ll be called Shawnya’s Law. That recognition, coupled with the help Daniels offered her, gave Shawnya the courage to do this story. She’s hoping it resonates for good with those who need to hear it.
“By telling my story,” she said, “I would want other women to come forward with their story and to seek help before it’s too late, before it is too late.”
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