It is illegal to marry more than one person in USA.

Yet, there are polygamous families that get hunted down by the law and arrested and the men imprisoned.

How does this happen?

They can't LEGALLY be married. So, technically, no matter what they call themselves, they're really just guys living with a lot of women and having a lot of children.

How does it become illegal?

The article discusses one way that "polygamists" can get in trouble, but it's more a symptom of the situation which they can avoid while still being polygamists...

At the end, it discusses how somebody was arrested for "polygamy".


Polygamy's 'Lost Boys' expelled from only life they knew - The Boston Globe
===============================================
Polygamy's 'Lost Boys' expelled from only life they knew
Sect's outcasts are casualties of marriage practice
By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times | June 19, 2005

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Abandoned by his family, faith, and community, Gideon Barlow arrived here an orphan from another world.

The freckle-faced 17-year-old said he was left to fend for himself last year after being forced out of Colorado City, Ariz., just over the state line.

''I couldn't see how my mom would let them do what they did to me," he said.

When he tried to visit her on Mother's Day, he said, she told him to stay away. When he begged to give her a present, she said she wanted nothing. ''I am dead to her now," he said.

Gideon is one of the ''Lost Boys," a group of more than 400 teenagers -- some as young as 13 -- who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four years.

His stated offenses: wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to compact discs, and having a girlfriend. Other boys say they were booted out for going to movies, watching television, and staying out past curfew.

Some say they were sometimes given as little as two hours' notice before being driven to St. George or nearby Hurricane, Utah, and left like unwanted pets along the road.

Authorities say the teenagers aren't really being expelled for what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places where men can have dozens of wives.

''It's a mathematical thing. If you are marrying all these girls to one man, what do you do with all the boys?" said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who has had boys in his office crying to see their mothers. ''People have said to me: 'Why don't you prosecute the parents?' But the kids don't want their parents prosecuted; they want us to get the number one bad guy -- Warren Jeffs. He is chiefly responsible for kicking out these boys."

The 49-year-old Jeffs is the prophet, or leader, of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The FLDS, as it is known, controls Hildale and Colorado City.

The sect, which broke from the Mormon Church more than a century ago, has between 10,000 and 15,000 members.

It believes in ''plural marriage," that a man must have at least three wives to reach the highest levels of heaven. The Mormon Church forbids polygamy and excommunicates those who practice it.

Polygamy is also illegal, and in recent weeks law enforcement has turned up the heat on the FLDS.

On June 10, Jeffs was indicted in Arizona on charges that he had arranged a marriage between a 28-year-old man, who was already married, and a 16-year-old girl.

He faces two years in prison if convicted, though he has not been arrested and is thought to be in Texas.

A few days earlier, a Utah judge froze the assets of the United Effort Plan, an FLDS trust that owns most of the homes and land in the polygamous towns.

(More at the link...)
==================================================

The article isn't specific about WHAT CHARGES were made.
It is legal for a 16-year old to marry in Arizona IFF:

If you are under 18, you must either have a notarized parental consent form or have your parents accompany you, present the proper identification, and sign the parental consent form in front of the clerk issuing your license.
If you are age 16 - 17 identification and one of the following documents showing proof of age is needed: certified copy of birth certificate; current driver's license; state or military I.D. card; or current passport.

Get an Arizona Marriage License

Presumably it becomes illegal when you try to establish a legal contract that is precluded by an existing contract? I would guess that the point at which an offence is committed would be when the priest or registrar asks if anyone knows of a lawful impediment and you don't fess up.

Rab

Rabbit, welcome to the forums, and please excuse my saying so, I really do not mean to derail the topic here, but to me, it is the funniest to have you . . .
going by the name "Rabbit" . . .
asking how polygamy is illegal!!!
LOL

OD

Polygamy is one of the unknowns. It isnt illegal by law of man or church because you are not breaking any laws by it nor can you legaly get married to more then 1. I for one absolutly hate these people, its complete brainwash and bs. And the removal of the kids on the basis of "competition" for women makes me kinda sick.

Reading this somehow brings home to me what a huge country America is. There is just not the room for sects like Jeffs has in the U.K.....although a few nutters try such things from time to time.......

....and no 'state line' anywhere here....just all one set of laws ...even in the outposts of Wales and Tyneside.

I suppose in the case of Polygamy, the 'intention' to commit it could be classed as a crime?