Sham marriages, elder ‘exploitation,’ fake death certificates uncovered in massive Minnesota immigration bust

FIRST ON FOX: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office conducted an unprecedented large-scale investigation in Minneapolis this month, focused on those who were committing marriage and asylum fraud.

Under a mission known as Operation Twin Shield, officers targeted 1,000 cases, knocking on doors at more than 900 sites to conduct interviews and review immigration criteria. Coordinating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI, they found fraud, non-compliance, or public safety and national security concerns in 275 cases.

It’s the first operation after a new rule finalized earlier this month allowed USCIS to expand its law enforcement duties.

In 44 of those cases, the immigrants were referred to ICE or given a notice to appear (NTA) in court. Two were detained on-site. The rest are still being investigated.

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In one example, an immigrant engaged in a sham marriage with an elderly U.S. citizen and subjected the citizen to “elder abuse and exploitation,” according to USCIS. Another immigrant admitted to fabricating a death certificate from Kenya for $100 to falsely claim the termination of a marriage — the spouse in question was alive, living in Minneapolis and the mother of five of his children.

Other cases included a petitioner who confessed to marriage fraud just hours after swearing under oath that her marriage was legitimate, and another involving an immigrant who had overstayed a visa waiver, was the son of a suspected terrorist, and had previously been denied benefits for fraud.

USCIS Director Joseph Edlow described the operation as part of a broader shift in enforcement posture under President Donald Trump. “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. With help from ICE and the FBI, USCIS’ Operation Twin Shield was a tremendous success — hundreds of bad actors will be held accountable,” Edlow said.

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The operation was conducted between Sept. 19 and 28 across the Minneapolis–St. Paul region. USCIS said it is the first time the agency has committed resources on this scale to a single geographic area and signaled more such crackdowns could follow.

Officials expect the number of NTAs, referrals to ICE and adverse adjudications to increase as investigations continue.

The agency pointed to Executive Order 14161, which directs federal agencies to protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other public safety threats, as the framework guiding the operation. Officials emphasized that unlike during the Biden administration, USCIS officers are now empowered to thoroughly vet applicants and aggressively pursue fraud wherever it is encountered.

The Minneapolis surge marks the first time USCIS has deployed resources at this scale in a single region, and leadership suggested it could become a model for future crackdowns in other parts of the country. With more administrative investigations still underway, the number of arrests and court referrals is expected to rise.