BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 12. The US Department of Justice has charged 11 people over an alleged decade-long scheme that arranged around 1,000 fraudulent marriages to help mostly Chinese nationals obtain legal immigration status in the United States, according to court documents.
An indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan alleges that foreign nationals paid a group of six facilitators up to $100,000 each to be matched with US citizens and obtain legal residency.
The indictment states that some US citizens were paid as much as $30,000 to enter into the fake marriages.
Authorities said participants in the scheme then helped newly married couples submit documents to the US Department of Homeland Security so foreign nationals could obtain lawful permanent resident status.
US Attorney General Todd Blanche described the case as one of the largest marriage fraud prosecutions in US history, saying it demonstrated how individuals attempt to exploit the country’s immigration system.
The announcement comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at restricting so-called “birth tourism”, following a Supreme Court decision concerning citizenship rights for children born in the United States.
The US State Department also announced that it had begun reviewing the activities of visa holders as part of efforts to prevent individuals from entering the country solely to obtain citizenship for their children.
