Earlier this week, four individuals were charged in Massachusetts after being caught running a “large-scale” marriage fraud agency marketed to illegal migrants. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts made the announcement, and it has raised major concerns.
According to the press release, the agency was run by Marcialito Biol Benitez, a 50-year-old Philippine national operating out of Los Angeles. Between October 2016 and March 2022, Benitez’s agency orchestrated hundreds of sham marriages between illegal migrants and American citizens. And it wasn’t cheap – the agency charged between $20,000 and $35,000 in cash for their services.
Benitez’s modus operandi was to recruit U.S. citizens to marry his clients in exchange for payment. These fraudulent marriages were then performed at parks, chapels, and other locations, and fake wedding ceremonies were staged to make the marriages appear legitimate.
Four people were sentenced in federal court in Boston for their roles in running a large-scale marriage fraud “agency” that arranged hundreds of sham marriages to circumvent immigration laws., the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday. https://t.co/OBUrCybxY2
— Boston 25 News (@boston25) March 12, 2024
But the scam didn’t end there. The agency also helped their clients cheat the system by providing fake photos of the couples in front of prop wedding decorations, which were later used to support immigration petitions. Benitez even went as far as to help his clients practice interviews to pass the required interviews with immigration authorities.
And when the fake marriages started to fall apart, Benitez and his co-conspirators would claim that the migrants had been abused by their American spouses. This, unfortunately, is a tactic often used by illegal migrants to gain sympathy and get their immigration status adjusted.
For their crimes, Benitez, along with his co-conspirators, were charged with conspiracy to commit marriage fraud and immigration document fraud back in April 2022. They were all recently sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper.
Benitez received a sentence of 22 months in prison and three years of supervised release, while Juanita Pacson, 48, was sentenced to two years of supervised release with the first four months on home detention. Engelbert Ulan, 43, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release, and Nino Valmeo, 47, was sentenced to three years of supervised release with the first six months of home confinement.
The fact that this fraud was marketed to illegal migrants only highlights the need for stricter immigration policies.
