The Trump administration is tightening rules to prevent migrants from bribing citizens to gain legal status via fake marriages.
With the new policies, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is putting increased scrutiny on U.S. green card marriage rules. The policies will apply to all new applications as well as pending ones.
“Fraudulent, frivolous, or otherwise non-meritorious family-based immigrant visa petitions erode confidence in family-based pathways to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status and undermine family unity in the United State,” the ISCIS said in a statement announcing the rules changes.
The agency added that the new rules, which are already in effect, are meant to ensure that proclaimed family relationships “are genuine, verifiable, and compliant with all applicable laws.”
One new rule, for instance, requires U.S. citizens to supply financial records showing they have a close relationship to the migrant they claim to have married. USCIS is looking for bank account records, living arrangements such as mortgage or rent papers, utility bills in the couple’s names, photos of the couple, and letters from friends and family to prove real relationships.
The agency is also stepping up in person interviews to assess the validity of a marriage. During the interviews, questions will be asked to ascertain how well the applicants know each other and the migrant’s immigration history will take a close examination, including a review of past immigration requests and records.
“We are committed to keeping Americans safe by detecting aliens with potentially harmful intent so they can be processed for removal from the United States,” the USCIS added.
The marriage fraud industry has raged unchecked for decades and whole criminal enterprises have been created to funnel foreigners into the U.S. disguised as migrants being “married” to a U.S. citizen.
Just last year a Connecticut bureaucrat was arrested and accused of running an immigrant marriage scam.
Wanda Geter-Pataky, who was a justice of the peace at New Haven City Hall, was allegedly caught officiating at a string of controversial weddings that some assume are meant to fraudulently push migrants into legal status.
Geter-Pataky reportedly officiated more than 100 of these marriages a month during the Biden regime.
In another case in 2022, a group of foreign nationals was charged with operating a marriage fraud scheme that sought green cards for more than 400 illegal aliens.
Charges were brought against eleven individuals who prosecutors alleged ran an agency that paid American citizens to marry their illegal alien clients for the sole purpose of securing a green card to permanently remain in the U.S. and eventually apply for naturalized American citizenship from October 2016 to March 2022.
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