US charges 11 in $100K-per-person scheme arranging 1,000 sham marriages for Chinese nationals

The US Justice Department charged 11 people in a decade-long scheme that arranged about 1,000 sham marriages to help mostly Chinese nationals obtain legal residency. Foreign nationals paid facilitators up to $100,000 each, while US citizens were paid up to $30,000. Attorney General Todd Blanche called it one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in US history.

The US Justice Department on Wednesday charged 11 people in a decade-long scheme that arranged about 1,000 sham marriages to allow mostly Chinese nationals to achieve legal immigration status in the United States, according to court documents. Foreign nationals paid a group of six facilitators as much as $100,000 each to be paired with a US citizen and obtain legal residency. US citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to agree to the marriages. Participants then helped the newlyweds submit paperwork to the Department of Homeland Security to allow the Chinese national to become a lawful permanent resident. Attorney General Todd Blanche described the scheme as one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in US history and said it showed how far people will go to cheat the immigration system. The announcement follows an executive order signed by President Donald Trump last week aimed at restricting birth tourism, after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of broad citizenship rights for babies born in the US. The State Department also started an effort to review visa holders' activities to crack down on women coming to the US solely to attain citizenship for their child.