Crimeupdated 34m ago2 min read
Jennifer Gonzalez Charged With Running $38,000-$40,000 Sham Marriages For Green Cards In Massachusetts
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Six people charged in Massachusetts marriage fraud ring, including Jennifer Gonzalez. Scheme involved arranging hundreds of sham marriages over a decade to aid green-card eligibility.
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Massachusetts sham marriages
Federal prosecutors in Massachusetts charged six people in a long-running scheme that they said arranged sham marriages to help immigrants unlawfully obtain green cards and potential U.S. citizenship.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley told reporters that the alleged conduct was “a for-profit business whose sole purpose is helping people cheat and skip the line by simply paying for it,” and she said the scheme generated more than $6 million in profits over more than a decade.
Jennifer Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen, was accused of acting as the alleged mastermind and of charging between $38,000 and $40,000 per marriage while arranging as many as 18 to 20 sham marriages every year.
The defendants face potential sentences totaling 25 years in prison on the three charges combined, and Hill was described as serving a state prison sentence for a firearms offense.
The Guardian said Foley described the scheme as operating in a “sanctuary” jurisdiction where “you get a lot of help as an immigrant,” and prosecutors said Gonzalez told a cooperating witness that her goal was “for you to get the American dream.”
Arrests and recorded statements
Federal authorities arrested five women Wednesday morning, and they said a sixth defendant was already in state prison serving a sentence for a firearms crime. Prosecutors charged Jennifer Gonzalez, Amara Pugh, Erica Daniels, Cherice Alejandro, Jessica Tavares and Jalyn Hill, and it described Gonzalez as the mastermind who arranged “18-20 sham marriages per year for the last decade.” ABC News quoted Foley saying, “What an affront the alleged conduct revealed here today must be to those who play by the rules,” as prosecutors argued the ceremonies were part of an elaborate, decade-long marriage fraud ring.
Gonzalez was heard in a recording saying she “stopped doing weddings at the end of 2024 because that's when Trump was becoming president,” and she told the cooperating witness that Massachusetts is a “sanctuary.” Newsweek reported that Gonzalez told a cooperating witness she was “very good at this,” and it said she warned that “we’re in a new government, things are a little bit more difficult.”
SNAP fraud and next steps
Prosecutors said the marriage scheme also involved Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, fraud, and they accused Gonzalez of spending $120,000 she received in SNAP benefits. Prosecutors alleged the defendants lied on SNAP applications by falsely claiming they never had been married, and they also accused the defendants of engaging in housing and unemployment fraud. Foley called the scheme sophisticated and said Gonzalez was “operating with impunity under the last administration,” while the investigation remained ongoing and could result in future charges against anyone found to have obtained legal status through the scheme.
Foley said Gonzalez entered such a marriage herself and obtained Snap food benefits from Massachusetts without listing any income from her scheme, which she used to buy property in the Dominican Republic. The women would take “couples photos” on the day the marriage became official to make the relationship look real, and it described the defendants as staying married for several years to avoid suspicion.