Federal prosecutors charged six people Wednesday with participating in a long-running scheme to stage hundreds of sham marriages in Massachusetts to help immigrants illegally obtain green cards and potential U.S. citizenship.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, at a news conference in Boston, said “the alleged mastermind of the scheme, Jennifer Gonzalez, helped arrange sham marriages for more than a decade in Massachusetts, a Democratic-run state that the defendant described as a ‘sanctuary’ jurisdiction where ‘you get a lot of help as an immigrant.’
It is the latest such case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. In August, he brought one of the largest such cases when in New York he indicted 11 people for a scheme prosecutors said “facilitated approximately 1,000 sham marriages.”
Gonzalez, 43, told a cooperating witness posing as a customer that his group helped obtain hundreds of permanent resident cards, or green cards, for undocumented noncitizens living in Massachusetts, charging between $38,000 and $40,000 for marriages to U.S. citizens, according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities said the operation lasted about 12 years and generated an average of 18 to 20 fraudulent marriages per year, generating more than $6 million in profits.
Gonzalez, a U.S.-born citizen, told the witness that her goal was “for you to achieve the American dream” but “that her business became more difficult after Trump returned to power in 2025, the complaint states.”
Foley, whom the Trump administration named as the state’s top federal prosecutor, called it a sophisticated scheme that Gonzalez “operated with impunity under the last administration.”
“I hope that today the defendants and others like them will realize that the American dream is not for sale,” Foley said. “It has to be earned. And when you try to steal it for profit, we will hold you accountable.”
Gonzalez is accused of harboring immigrants living in the United States illegally and of matrimonial fraud. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other defendants include people accused of helping Gonzalez’s scheme or entering into sham marriages with immigrants.
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Foley said Gonzalez herself married and obtained Snap food benefits from Massachusetts without reporting income from her scheme, which she used to purchase property in the Dominican Republic.
Foley said the investigation is ongoing and could result in future charges against anyone who gained legal status through the program.
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