In nine days, the federal government discovered 275 cases of suspected fraud in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, conducted Operation Twin Shield, the first of its kind targeted surge of fraud detection and deterrence activities across Minneapolis-St. Paul from Sept. 19 to 28.
Immigration officers discovered suspected fraud in 275 cases in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
The effort focused on site visits and targeted verifications for applicants and petitioners with pending immigration benefits who matched specified risk criteria.
The operation aligns with Executive Order 14161, Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threat.
The types of applications for immigration benefits investigated included marriage and family-based petitions, employment authorizations, and certain parole-related requests.
Officers focused on more than 1,000 cases that had fraud or ineligibility indicators, conducted over 900 site visits and in-person interviews, and found evidence of fraud, non-compliance, or public safety or national security concerns in 275 cases—44 percent of cases interviewed.
USCIS coordinated with our ICE and FBI partners, who provided valuable assistance during the operation. As of today, USCIS issued Notices to Appear or referred aliens to ICE in 42 cases, and 4 aliens were apprehended. USCIS expects data on NTAs, referrals to ICE, and adverse adjudicative actions to increase as more administrative investigations are completed.
Operation Twin Shield uncovered much fraud.
For example, one alien admitted to fabricating a death certificate from Kenya for $100 to falsely claim the termination of a marriage—the spouse in question is alive, residing in Minneapolis, and is the mother of five of his children. In another case, an alien is the son of a known or suspected terrorist, he also overstayed his visa, and was previously found to have engaged in marriage fraud that resulted in the denial of several immigration benefit requests.
In another case, a petitioner admitted to officers with Operation Twin Shield that she committed marriage fraud; this was only a few hours after swearing that her marriage was bona fide during an interview at our Minneapolis office. In another case, an alien engaged in marriage fraud by taking advantage of an elderly U.S. citizen spouse, including subjecting the spouse to elder abuse and exploitation. This is a small sample of the immigration fraud USCIS officers across the nation combat every single day.
“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,” said USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow. “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. Under President Trump, we will leave no stone unturned.”
Operation Twin Shield is the first time USCIS dedicated resources on this scale in a single geographical area. Unlike during the Biden administration, USCIS immigration officers are now empowered to thoroughly vet aliens as required by law, and to pursue immigration fraud wherever it’s encountered.
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