Over thirty people have been arrested in what may be the most sophisticated immigration-marriage fraud rings uncovered in the USA in recent years.

Foreign nationals paid as much as $5,000 per marriage. In return, the South Florida marriage ring staged fake weddings and receptions to demonstrate to immigration authorities that the marriage was real. From Miami Herald:

“The bride wore blue jeans and a black blouse; the groom, jeans and a sports shirt.

The groom brought a cake, but nobody ate it because it was hard and moldy. And when the couple were pronounced man and wife, the groom refused to kiss the bride. The champagne glasses were filled with soda.”

Immigration requires proof of legitimacy in a marriage to grant residence to a foreign spouse. The way it works is: authorities first grant conditional residence to a spouse and, eventually, if no adverse information surfaces, permanent residence.

Officials said the conspiracy was one of the most elaborate they have seen in years of tracking fraudulent marriages between foreign nationals and U.S. citizens.

More than 100 foreign nationals paid money to members of the ring, which included the U.S. citizens they married, brokers and notaries.

The undercover operation arrested immigrants from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Germany, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Via: U.S. Immigration & Customs Inforcement

Related stories: Florida Immigration Policy