6 Charged in Marriage/Immigration Conspiracy in Massachusetts

Federal authorities in Massachusetts busted a marriage-fraud ring today that raked in millions of dollars arranging fake nuptials between illegal aliens and American subversives.

After arranging the phony marriages to help illegals change immigration status, the mastermind of the operation, cultural enricher Jennifer Gonzalez, used the proceeds from the scheme to buy real estate and businesses in the Dominican Republic, the federal Justice Department (DOJ) alleges.

Six defendants are charged with four crimes, including marriage fraud and harboring illegal aliens, announced Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.

The proceeds from the criminal enterprise made Gonzalez a multimillionairess. Prosecutors allege she ran the scheme for 10 years.

The Scheme

The clever scheme, DOJ alleges, involved six individuals:

• Gonzalez, 43, of Fall River, Mass.;
• Erica Daniels, 29, of Fall River, Mass.;
• Chreise Alejandro, 39, of Fall River, Mass.;
• Amara Pugh, 31, of Fall River, Mass.;
• Jessica Tavares, 31, of Attleboro, Mass.; and
• Jaylin Hill, 26, of Fall River, Mass.

Authorities arrested all of them this morning except Hill, who is currently in state prison on a gun crime.

“Gonzalez ran a business in which illegal aliens paid her to arrange sham marriages for them so that they could fraudulently obtain immigration status,” prosecutors allege:

Gonzalez in turn paid Daniels, Alejandro, Tavares and Hill (all U.S. citizens), to engage in one or more marriages to illegal aliens so that those “customers” could submit fraudulent documents to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to obtain legal immigration status. Pugh, also a U.S. citizen, worked as the business’s “secretary.”

Gonzalez hitched 18-20 couples annually, for the princely sum of $38,000 to $40,000 each.

Prosecutors say she stated that she bought business and real estate in the Dominican Republic with the ill-gotten booty.

According to the DOJ, “Gonzalez instructed her illegal alien customers about how to establish the appearance of a legitimate marriage, including setting up life insurance policies and joint bank accounts and taking selfie-style pictures as a married couple”:

Gonzalez allegedly told her illegal alien customers that it would take three to four months to prepare sufficient documentation of the sham marriage to use to apply for immigration status and required her customers to sign “contracts” to pay for her services. …

Gonzalez was captured on video and audio recordings during the investigation directing the printing and signing of a disguised “loan” contract and accepting a $3,000 cash down payment for arranging a sham marriage. Gonzalez allegedly told the customer that the contract intentionally avoided mentioning the spouse because doing so would be “incriminating,” and that she designed the documents to conceal the fraudulent purpose.

Cooperating Witness

The criminal complaint against Gonzalez and her gang includes verbatim conversations between a cooperating witness — CW-1 — and defendant Alejandro.

Amazingly, Gonzalez told CW-1 that lawyers had helped her in the past and that “they know what we’re doing,” the complaint alleges. “The lawyer knows the deal.” If true, that means the lawyer might face prosecution, too.

Gonzalez told CW-1 that “his sham wife had to establish accounts to give an appearance of a legitimate marriage,” including joint bank accounts and a life insurance policy.”

She also said she charged $38,000 to $40,000, and that “additional payments would need to be made to his ‘wife,’” the complaint alleges. “We do monthly payments,” she told CW-1. She also told him that he would need to stay married for at least three years. Asked what would happen if the “wife” fell in love with him, Gonzalez replied that she was running a business and that CW-1 would have a contract. “We’re not here for love,” she told him.

For her part, the complaint says, Alejandro married two illegal Brazilians, in 2018 and 2023. She also applied for SNAP benefits — food stamps — during the marriages, the complaint alleges, as did other defendants. They claimed they were never married even as they filed federal immigration petitions for their “spouses.”

Video and audio recordings of the two show Gonzalez telling CW-1 that Massachusetts is a sanctuary state and that “Trump doesn’t like this state” because “the state defends us very much.”

“Massachusetts is the best place for you to be,” she told him. “That is a fact.”

Gonzalez Married, Too

Gonzalez wasn’t just the scheme’s mastermind. On October 16, 2019, she married a Brazilian — “J.P.” in the complaint — whom a judge had ordered deported. He didn’t leave, and instead filed a petition to stay in the United States because he had married Gonzalez.

For seven years, Gonzalez defrauded the government of food stamps by not claiming “J.P.” as her husband, the complaint continues. She “allegedly spent over $120,000 that she received in SNAP benefits while she was running the sham marriage ring and buying property in the Dominican Republic.”

Harboring illegal aliens and conspiracy to do so — 8 U.S. Code 1324 — carries a 10-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine. Covered under improper entry by an alien — 8 U.S. Code 1325 — marriage fraud and conspiracy to do so can end in five years in prison, plus three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.