Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged six people in Massachusetts over an alleged sham marriage ring they say ran for about 12 years and helped immigrants unlawfully obtain green cards and potential US citizenship. At a press conference in Boston, US attorney Leah Foley said the case centers on Jennifer Gonzalez, whom prosecutors describe as the scheme’s alleged mastermind.
The complaint says the operation arranged hundreds of fraudulent marriages and produced more than $6 million in profits. Prosecutors said Gonzalez told a cooperating witness posing as a client that her group had helped obtain hundreds of permanent resident cards for undocumented noncitizens living in Massachusetts, and that she charged between $38,000 and $40,000 for each marriage to a US citizen.
That scale is what makes the case land now. Authorities said the operation averaged about 18 to 20 fraudulent marriages each year, a pace that would fit a steady business rather than isolated fraud. Foley said Gonzalez is charged with harboring immigrants living illegally in the US and marriage fraud, and that she herself entered such a marriage.
Prosecutors also said Gonzalez used the proceeds to buy property in the Dominican Republic while receiving Snap food benefits from Massachusetts without listing any income from the scheme. That detail sharpened the government’s case: the alleged organizer is said to have treated the fraud as both a business and a private benefit, even as she claimed public aid.
Foley said the investigation is still open and could lead to more charges against anyone found to have obtained legal status through the scheme. The charges place Massachusetts in the middle of the Justice Department’s broader immigration crackdown under Donald Trump, and they come after a New York case in August that involved 11 people and about 1,000 sham marriages. Foley said the American dream is not for sale. It is earned. And when you try to pilfer it for profit, we will hold you accountable.
