The Department of Justice has filed charges against 11 people after they aided illegal immigrants in obtaining green cards through marriage fraud. The charged individuals were behind more than 1,000 marriages as part of the scheme. Foreign nationals paid operators as much as $100,000 for the fraudulent marriage. Others involved in the scheme include marriage officiants, attorneys, tax preparers, insurance providers, and others.
According to the indictment, between at least 2016 and July 2026, the defendants took part in a nationwide and international marriage fraud operation. “As part of the scheme, facilitators paired foreign nationals seeking immigration status with United States citizens recruited by other scheme participants to engage in sham marriages, employing a series of service providers- including attorneys, tax preparers, and marriage officiants- to facilitate these sham marriages and submit fraudulent immigration applications to obtain lawful permanent residency for the foreign nationals,” it says.
The operation consisted primarily of those from China but arranged marriages in states such as Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, as well as Vanuatu and China. Each of the defendants has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration fraud, the DOJ explained.
“This Department of Justice is rooting out fraud everywhere — including in our immigration system,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “The individuals who were arrested today allegedly orchestrated elaborate schemes to illegally obtain citizenship for foreign nationals through sham marriages. Schemes like this are a deliberate affront to the United States and our laws and will not be tolerated under the Trump Administration.”
