 Early work by feminist philosophers typically argues that in sexist, racist, and class-divided societies, such as the United States, formally gender-neutral immigration policies often work to the detriment of immigrant women (Narayan 1995, Wilcox 2005). For instance, Uma Narayan argues that U.S. immigration legislation, such as the Immigration Marriage Fraud Amendment (IMFA) heightens immigrant women’s vulnerability to domestic violence. Before the IMFA was adopted, when a citizen or legal permanent resident married a foreigner and petitioned for permanent residency status for his spouse, legal residency was granted fairly quickly. The IMFA changed this process, adding a two-year period of “conditional residency,” during which the couple must remain married, and requiring both spouses to petition for adjustment to permanent residency status at the end of this waiting period. Narayan argues that the IMFA increases the already significant barriers to escaping abusive marriages for immigrant women because it ties immigration status to marriage. This is especially problematic because immigrant women are generally “economically, psychologically, and linguistically dependent on their spouses” (Narayan 1995, 106).