Massachusetts woman charged in massive immigration sham marriage ring

A Massachusetts woman has been accused of running a decade-long fraud ring organizing hundreds of "sham" immigration marriages in the state that net her millions of dollars in profits.

Jennifer Gonzalez, 43, a U.S. citizen living in Fall River, allegedly arranged these marriages to "obtain unlawful immigration benefits and generate more than $6 million in profits" according to U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley's office. Foley announced the arrest of Gonzalez, as well as six others charged in connection with the scheme, on Oct. 21.

At a press conference at the John J. Moakley U.S. Courthouse in Boston Wednesday morning, Foley said six women were charged with conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, harboring illegal aliens, conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and marriage fraud.

Gonzalez is accused of arranging about 18 to 20 fraudulent marriages per year for about 12 years, typically charging between $38,000 and $40,000 per wedding, according to court documents.

Gonzalez allegedly paid three women from Fall River and one woman from Attleboro to enter into the sham marriage with undocumented immigrants "for the sole purpose that they could obtain United States citizenship," Foley said.

Another Fall River woman was identified as Gonzalez's "secretary" who drew up the contracts, according to the charging documents.

According to Foley, the sham marriages worked like this:

Those involved in the scheme would marry an undocumented immigrant, stay married for a few years, and then get divorced, Foley said. They would then repeat the process over again, marrying another undocumented immigrant, she said.

"I don't know the average marriage length of marriages in the United States, but [the marriages were] long enough so that it wasn't suspicious," Foley said. "It wasn't three weeks later."

The scheme included the defendants "taking couples' photos to make the fake relationships look real," Foley said.

Included in the press release from Foley's office were several photos from the marriages of two the women charged – one involving a man from Brazil in 2018 and one involving another man from Brazil in 2024.

The sham wedding scheme was discovered over the summer, and a cooperating witness met with Gonzalez and one of the other women to collect evidence, according to the criminal complaint. During the investigation, Gonzalez told the witness that she and her group had secured hundreds of "green cards" for undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

See more at heraldnews.com.

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Massachusetts woman charged in massive immigration sham marriage ring

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