14 Indians are among a total of 19 individuals who have been charged with being involved with US visa fraud via falsified claims of being the victims of crime or fake marriages in order to get a green card, immigration officials claim. The accused, who originate from as many as eight different states, were charged in federal court in Jackson, Missouri.
On Thursday, the federal prosecutor for Mississippi’s Southern District, Gregory K Davis, declared that the 19 individuals were deliberately attempting to undermine the US immigration system’s integrity. The charges are the result of joint investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations and the Office of the Mississippi Attorney General. The defendants submitted fraudulent documents and circumvented laws crucial to obtain immigration status, according to Davis.
The prosecutor’s office says that Simpson Lloyd Goodman, a lawyer, submitted fraudulent documents on behalf of a number of Indians who were charged in order to get U-Visas, which are given to the victims of crime who assist with criminal investigations or prosecutions. A number of the fraudulent documents were professional crime reports that Ivory Lee Harris, a police officer in Jackson, allegedly prepared for Goodman. Harris has likewise been charged.
Nine people with Indian names are involved in the fake crime victim US visa case, out of 11 charged, and may even include some who already possess US citizenship. Eleven individuals were charged over the use of fraudulent marriages with American citizens to gain green cards, seven with Indian names.