Import Somalis, Become Somalia: ICE sweep in Minneapolis-St. Paul finds 50% of immigrants had committed immigration fraud

 

From New York Post:

Nearly half of all immigrants in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities were found to have committed some form of immigration fraud during a recent sweep by immigration authorities, officials revealed Tuesday.

“Officers encountered blatant marriage fraud, visa overstay, people claiming to work as businesses that can’t be found, forged documents, abuse of the H1B visa system, abuse of the F1 visa, and many other discrepancies,” US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph B. Edlow told reporters Tuesday.

Officials didn’t point to a specific group, but the Twin Cities has seen a massive uptick in Somali refugees and immigrants in recent years — with more than 82,000 from the East African country living in Minnesota.

USCIS visited 1,000 homes across Minneapolis and St. Paul in the last two weeks and found “nearly 50%” of inhabitants were engaged in some form of immigration fraud.

“Our officers found indications of fraud, non-compliance or public safety and national security concerns,” Edlow said. “What they found should shock all of America.”

The operation – dubbed Twin Shield, and carried out with the help of ICE – began on Sept. 13 and concluded this week, with Edlow calling it a “success” that could soon be repeated in cities across the country.

“This is the first of many,” Edlow said. “Any city should be prepared to be the site for an operation of this magnitude.”

It remains unclear how many people were detained in the operation — officials would only disclose that “multiple” had been taken into custody, explaining that it was too early to give an accurate number.

The Twin Cities were chosen because the “data” showed it as a hotspot for “manipulation and misuse of the immigration system,” officials said, with cases of marriage fraud found to be a particular problem.

In one incident, investigators encountered a Kenyan immigrant who paid just $100 for a fake death certificate in his wife’s name so he could marry his way into the US. The trouble is, his wife was alive and well, and found with their five kids in Minneapolis.

“Incidentally, he has another wife living in Sweden with whom has an additional three children,” Edlow said.

Another migrant found living in the Twin Cities was the son of a “known or suspected terrorist on the no-fly list,” and had made numerous attempts to commit marriage fraud before being caught in the operation, according to officials. He is now in custody for deportation.

A third person conned an elderly American woman into marriage – and while the bogus couple have since divorced, officials said she “lives in fear” of retaliation from the conman.

“I want the American people to know that we are declaring war on immigration fraud,” Edlow said. “We have a responsibility to keep this system legitimate.”

“What has been uncovered by these diligent officers over the past two weeks, that’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

Minnesota has sizable immigrant populations from countries like India, Vietnam, and Mexico, but its Somali residents have been a flashpoint for years.

The first refugees from Horn of Africa started arriving in the 1990s as Somalia descended into a violent civil war and famine.