‘Defenseless’: Victims urge Trump to tackle migrant marriage fraud once and for all

Americans who found themselves duped by foreigners in sham marriages are asking the Trump administration to get serious about tackling the issue.

Codias Law — a firm representing 140 individuals, including marriage fraud victims, their families and others — filed a formal petition Wednesday with the attorney general, the director of the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) and the chairman of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), according to documents shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The petition asks the Trump administration to adopt a formal process that would allow Americans to blow the whistle on marriage-based green cards upon new evidence of fraud and challenge approvals made by immigration officials.

“For the first time in American history, victims of marriage fraud would finally have an established process for reviewing whether career bureaucrats inside [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] USCIS have improperly approved immigration benefits,” Cody Brown, managing attorney at Codias Law, stated to the DCNF.

“If a foreign national has a benefit denied, there are ten ways to fight it,” Brown stated. “But if a U.S. citizen discovers fraud after the fact, they’re told to submit a tip and hope for the best.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees EOIR, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Marriage fraud typically involves a marital union for the sole purpose of obtaining immigration benefits, rather than for a genuine marital relationship. This can involve sham marriages, where both parties are aware that the marriage is not genuine and usually involves the American spouse obtaining a benefit of their own, such as financial payment, or one-sided fraud, where one party was unaware of their spouse’s fraudulent intent.

A felony that can render a guilty immigrant ineligible for benefits, marriage fraud is a serious crime in the U.S. However, mounting evidence suggests federal institutions are not well equipped to take on the unique challenges posed by this type of immigration fraud.

As recently as September 2022 it was apparent that USCIS — the default enforcer of marriage fraud — didn’t have a national anti-fraud strategy, according to a Government Accountability Office report. USCIS denies 0% of marriage-based petitions for fraud, according to documentation Brown obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

“This is another example of career bureaucrats undermining the stated enforcement priorities of the Trump administration,” Brown stated. “And it’s leaving fraud victims defenseless.”

The DOJ rarely prosecutes marriage fraud, according to testimony Brown gave before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement in June. Homeland Security Investigations, the principal agency within Immigration and Customs Enforcement that is tasked with opening criminal investigations into immigration-related marriage fraud, rarely does so outside of unusual circumstances.

Many victims of marriage fraud say they’ve been left with few answers from the federal government and even fewer attorneys who specialize in such cases.

“Unfortunately, there is no proper avenue for you to reach out to anybody,” a woman, who wished to keep her identity private in order to speak freely about her situation, said to the DCNF. “There is a website where you can submit your request, and it can be anonymous, but I don’t think there is a response where they are going to take any action or respond in a timely manner, any of that sort.”

The woman, who is an American citizen, married an Indian national in 2019 after meeting through an online matrimonial service. While maintaining a long-distance relationship during the sponsorship process, the man maintained that he was a widower and expressed a desire to have children, she said.

After finally obtaining lawful permanent residence in 2023 and moving to Texas to be with her, they cohabited for just one month before he abruptly left. The heartbroken newlywed later found out that, not only did her husband previously undergo a vasectomy before their marriage, but he had been once deported from Dubai for sexual misconduct and that his first wife had died by suicide, reportedly due to his abuse.

Despite a court annulling their marriage in 2025, the ex husband is still believed to be living freely in the U.S. She told the DCNF that she last heard he was somewhere in California.

“I contacted multiple people, multiple lawyers,” she said of her quest to find legal help before meeting Brown. As she quickly found out, most immigration lawyers only work to facilitate immigration into the U.S.

“Most of the lawyers turned me away, as most of them are actually pro-immigration,” she said. “They attempt to help people who are here to stay here, not the other way around.”

Brown’s group represents a slate of other American citizens who married foreign nationals for the right reasons, only for their partners to quickly abscond upon receiving their coveted immigration status.

President Donald Trump has established himself as a hardliner on border enforcement issues, which could make his administration more receptive to Brown’s proposal.

After returning to the White House in January, the Republican president immediately got to work on immigration reform by signing numerous executive orders to secure the southern border, declaring a national emergency, prioritizing wall construction and coercing the Mexican government to deploy law enforcement to the region.

The results of Trump’s effort have been back-to-back milestones of record-low border activity, with his administration declaring the southern border to be the most secure in U.S. history.

USCIS, in particular, has become more focused on enforcement since Trump’s return. In March, the agency proved tantamount in helping to dismantle a major marriage fraud network within the country. USCIS officials worked alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement to uncover a “sophisticated network of individuals” involved in the rampant scheme that allegedly generated millions in illicit revenue.

While there is hope that the Trump administration will take on Codias Law’s demands, there is a fallback option if not. The firm is prepared to litigate the issue on behalf of its clients and other victims nationwide.

“Untold numbers of fraudsters and national security risks are now at large in the United States,” Brown stated. “The only question is whether our institutions are finally willing to do something about it.”

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