ICE sweep in Minneapolis-St. Paul finds 50% of immigrants had committed immigration fraud

ICE sweep in Minneapolis-St. Paul finds 50% of immigrants had committed immigration fraud:

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 immigration authorities, 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.

Omar has denied the reports, which originated in conservative blogs as she was running for state office in 2016, calling them “false and ridiculous.”

It remains unclear how many people were detained in the recent federal operation — officials would only disclose that “multiple” had been taken into custody, explaining that it was too early to give an accurate number.