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 authorities with the Department of Homeland Security, 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.”
Questions about the influx of migrants to the Twin Cities — particularly Somali migrants — have been in the national spotlight since claims emerged that liberal firebrand Rep. Ilhan Omar — a naturalized US citizen from Somalia — married her own brother to get him US citizenship. --->READ MORE HERE
This week, federal officials made an astounding announcement: Nearly half of all immigrants in greater Minneapolis were found to have committed some form of immigration fraud.
The fraud, uncovered in a September sweep, came in all kinds — sham marriages, fake death certificates and “other bizarre schemes,” as US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edley put it.
But the revelation was no great surprise to those of us who have followed the settlement of some 100,000 Somali immigrants in Minnesota over the past three decades.
As far back as 2008, the State Department temporarily suspended one of the family reunification programs used by Somali immigrants when DNA testing of applicants found that 80% of all its claimed family relationships were fake.
Immigration fraud in this community has been the norm.
And when it comes to “bizarre schemes,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) serves as Exhibit A.
Omar is accused of, and has never credibly denied, marrying her brother to get him legal papers.
In 2016, following up on a tip posted on a local Somali discussion board, I found that Omar — then a first-time candidate for the Minnesota state legislature — had “religiously married,” but not legally married, Ahmed Hirsi, the father of her children.
However, records showed that in 2009, she had legally married Ahmed Nur Said Elmi — a man identified as her brother by Somalis on the discussion board.
Omar was still married to Elmi as she campaigned for state office in 2016, although her website made no mention of him and touted Hirsi as her husband.
It appeared that Omar had married her brother for some fraudulent purpose.
As if to put an exclamation point on the scam, the Omar-Elmi marriage license was executed by Wilecia Harris, a Christian minister, despite the couple’s Muslim faith.
When I asked the Omar campaign about her marriages, a criminal defense attorney responded with a message accusing me of bigotry — and failing to respond to my questions.
This has been Omar’s modus operandi ever since. --->READ MORE HERE
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