Comprehensive immigration reform focuses on removing millions of unlawful immigrants from the shadow, and consequential abuses by employers and substandard health care. Yet, there are those that will abuse and exploit the immigration system for economic profits and make a mockery of a system that has many opportunities for exploitation.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - Two men were sentenced Thursday in federal court for participating in a conspiracy that allowed dozens of Chinese nationals to illegally enter the United States based on sham marriages to U.S. citizens. These sentences resulted from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced Le Guo Wu, 31, of Philadelphia, Penn., to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Houa Vang, 24, of St. Paul, was sentenced to12 months and one day in prison along with two years of supervised release. Vang and Wu each pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiring to profit from arranging, facilitating and participating in fraudulent marriages.
“These sentences show that admission to the United States is not for sale,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge of ICE’s Office of Investigations in Bloomington. “Such marriage fraud schemes not only undermine the integrity of our nation’s legal immigration system, they also pose a potential threat to national security.”
“This conspiracy used lies and deceit to prey upon our nation’s immigration laws,” said U.S. Attorney Frank J. Magill. “In the end, this was about generating a profit by trafficking United States citizens and Chinese nationals through our immigration visa system. The integrity of our nation’s borders must be maintained, and these types of crimes will be prosecuted.”
According to their plea agreements, Wu, assisted by Vang, led a coordinated effort to pay U.S. citizens to enter into sham marriages with Chinese nationals to illegally evade U.S. immigration laws. Both men admitted to committing marriage fraud for several purposes, including: profiting financially from the arranged marriages, facilitating the fraudulent entry of Chinese aliens into the U.S., and facilitating the fraudulent acquisition of lawful permanent residency by Chinese aliens.
Wu recruited dozens of U.S. citizens in multiple states to participate in the conspiracy beginning in 2004 and continuing through October 2007. He ran the operation from Philadelphia, but also operated in the Twin Cities, Minn.; New York; and from within China. Vang recruited U.S. citizens to participate in the conspiracy.
Both defendants assisted the recruited U.S. citizens with completing and filing petitions and visa applications to facilitate aliens fraudulently entering into the United States. Wu arranged for U.S. citizens to travel to China so they could document their purported relationships with Chinese nationals, and compensated the U.S. citizens for their participation in the conspiracy.
Vang agreed to enter a fraudulent marriage with a Chinese national in 2006, and made trips to China to document the sham relationship. Vang was offered $20,000 for his part in gaining his fraudulent wife’s illegal entry into the U.S., but ultimately received less than that amount.
ICE agents investigated this case; it was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys David M. Genrich and LeeAnn K. Bell.
These people are disgusting because as they continue to flagrantly disregard and violate the law, they do it in the name of the ultimate good for immigrant families. First of all, if a Chinese family living in China can afford to pay $20,000 - $40,000 to have a child married off in a sham marriage, they are not exactly considered disadvantaged in their home country. In situations like this, we applaud the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for this keen investigative work in bringing down these criminal mavericks who egregiously flout our immigration laws.