Federal immigration authorities put hundreds of foreign nationals on notice after taking their “all-out war” on fraud to the frontlines in Minnesota.
The Trump administration launched Operation Twin Shield, a first-of-its-kind law enforcement surge that targeted suspected migrant fraudsters living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, according to a Tuesday announcement by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The targeted operation, done in coordination with other federal agencies, put hundreds of foreign nationals on the government’s radar.
The operation, which spanned from Sept. 19th through the 28th across the Twin Cities region, uncovered 275 cases of suspected fraud after agents visited and interviewed hundreds of foreign nationals engaged in various marriages and other immigration-related schemes that were flagged as a potential cause of concern for federal investigators.
“USCIS is declaring an all-out war on immigration fraud. We will relentlessly pursue everyone involved in undermining the integrity of our immigration system and laws,” USCIS Director Joe Edlow said in a public statement. “With help from [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE and the FBI, USCIS’ Operation Twin Shield was a tremendous success — hundreds of bad actors will be held accountable.”
Twin Shield Arrest. USCIS photo.
“Immigration fraud undermines the integrity of our lawful immigration system, harms those who follow the law, and poses risks to national security and public safety,” Edlow continued. “Under President Trump, we will leave no stone unturned.”
USCIS conducted more than 900 in-person interviews and site visits of cases that officers believed had “fraud or ineligibility” indicators, according to the agency. Investigators discovered evidence of fraud, public safety concerns and non-compliance in 275 cases — around 44% of cases that were investigated. The agency has since referred migrants to ICE or issued notices to appear in 42 cases, and arrested two other foreign nationals, images of which were obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The agency revealed the details of some of the cases, such as a Kenyan man allegedly fabricating a death certificate to claim the end of his marriage when, in fact, the spouse in question is alive and residing in Minneapolis. Another individual was allegedly discovered to be the son of a known or suspected terrorist who overstayed his visa and had engaged in marriage fraud, and another individual allegedly subjected an elderly person to abuse amid a marriage fraud scheme.
Twin Shield Arrest. USCIS image.
“What they found should shock all of America,” Edlow said during a Tuesday press conference about the operation. “Our officers encountered blatant marriage fraud, visa overstays, people claiming to work at businesses that can’t be found, forged documents, abuse of the H-1B visa system, abuse of F-1 visas and many other discrepancies over the course of the operation.”
Edlow said major discrepancies were also found in the Uniting for Ukraine program, a Biden-era program that allowed Ukrainian nationals to arrive in the U.S. en masse. One individual in the Ukrainian program somehow managed to file to sponsor more than 100 people.
“As we work to undo the neglect of the Biden administration, we will continue to launch operations like this across the country,” Edlow said Tuesday. “Operation Twin Shield was a major enforcement operation, and we will be bringing many more efforts like this to cities across the country.”
The agency says the operation is in line with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14161, Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats. USCIS, the agency tasked with managing the country’s legal immigration system, has adopted a more enforcement-oriented role under the Trump administration.
USCIS reminded citizens earlier this month that they will be held financially liable if the migrants they sponsor dare to use government-funded welfare and the agency declared that it would begin to more heavily weed out green card applicants who’ve used welfare or other taxpayer-funded government services. In August, USCIS announced it would not just consider a foreign national’s absence of misconduct during their citizenship application process, but also weigh their “positive attributes” to society.
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