Just when you’re hoping you’ve discovered the last outrageous Chinese violation of human rights, threat to our national security, or breach of civil decorum, we discover yet another Chinese incursion into our country: sham marriages.
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This travesty has been going on for at least ten years and has been masterminded by at least 11 people, resulting in more than 1,000 marriages.
The people behind the sham marriage scheme use a variety of promotional tools, including word of mouth, social media, and other types of advertising, all primarily targeting citizens of the People’s Republic of China. The operation itself involved an extensive network:
The network included facilitators who oversaw the scheme and identified foreign-national customers; recruiters who found willing United States citizens and helped ensure their continued participation; and assistants who prepared immigration paperwork and coordinated the submission of fraudulent lawful permanent residency (Green Card) applications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The scheme also relied on marriage officiants, attorneys, tax preparers, insurance providers, and other service providers.
Foreign nationals paid these facilitators very well. Some facilitators reportedly earned as much as $100,000 for arranging a marriage, while others involved in facilitating the overall arrangements were said to earn a fee of $5,000.
This scheme represented one of the largest marriage scams in U.S. history. One official described the investigation this way:
‘As alleged, this decade-long scheme turned marriage fraud into an international business model arranging countless sham marriages and causing hundreds of fraudulent Green Card applications to be submitted to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services,’ said Acting Executive Associate Director John Condon of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). ‘Through the Homeland Security Task Force, HSI and our partners will continue to dismantle criminal networks that undermine the rule of law, exploit federal laws, and profit from fraud.’
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The facilitators used a well-designed approach to carry out the scam. Participants would meet shortly before receiving their marriage licenses, after which they would follow a carefully constructed agenda:
After the ceremonies, scheme participants manufactured evidence to make the marriages appear genuine, including by staging additional photographs, opening joint financial and utility accounts, filing joint tax returns, and obtaining insurance policies. The defendants and their co-conspirators then prepared and submitted Green Card applications containing materially false statements and, when interviews with USCIS were required, coached the marriage participants on how to conceal the true nature of their relationships and provide false answers to immigration officers.
Even more alarming from a national security standpoint was that the facilitators targeted our military to make further inroads into our immigration system:
The scheme was orchestrated by a Chinese transnational gang that recruited military members to participate in fraudulent marriages so that Chinese citizens could obtain immigration benefits and access cards for U.S. military installations, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In several respects, these activities violated some of our most prized values and beliefs. Treating the sacred act of marriage as a business arrangement is abhorrent; disregarding our country’s security is equally troubling; and committing fraud against our immigration laws is despicable.
Given the other attacks that China has orchestrated over the last several years, we should be seriously reconsidering how we interact and do business with the Chinese government and Chinese nationals.
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Isn’t there a point at which the abuses and deceptions outweigh the benefits?
Should we still be doing any business with the People’s Republic of China?
Image created using AI.