A few years ago, Oregon’s first lady, Cylvia Hayes, shared her rags-to-riches journey — from her dilapidated childhood home in Washington state, to a tent on government land in Oregon, to the governor’s mansion, where she now lives with Gov. John Kitzhaber (D).
But she never mentioned the Ethiopian immigrant she married 17 years ago and divorced in 2002. When stories seeped out this week that she helped him obtain U.S. residency in exchange for $5,000, she said she needed the cash.
“It was a marriage of convenience,” she said in a statement. “He needed help, and I needed financial support.”
Hayes, 47, wiped away tears during a news conference Thursday, explaining that when she married the 18-year-old immigrant in 1997, she was “associating with the wrong people” and attempting to pay for classes at Evergreen State College near Seattle. She said she used the money to buy a laptop and cover school expenses. She was so “ashamed and embarrassed” of the illegal union she never even told Kitzhaber, her fiance — until the Willamette Week peeked into her past earlier this week.
Hayes was twice divorced and not yet 30 when she married an Ethiopian teenager identified as Abraham B. Abraham [OTHERS HAVE SPELLED IT IBRAHIM IBRAHIM], who she met through a mutual acquaintance in Washington state. He was allegedly trying to stay in America to earn a college education.WHO REALLY ARRANGED IT?
HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN ARRANGING ILLEGAL MARRIAGES?
DO THEY HAVE RECORDS OF THEM? MIGHT THEIR BANKS?
WAS THE MAN SHE MARRIED A MUSLIM?
HAVE MANY MUSLIMS BEEN BUYING CITIZENSHIP THIS WAY?
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