A Massachusetts woman has been accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of orchestrating sham marriages designed to help clients obtain green cards and, ultimately, U.S. citizenship.
Jennifer Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen, allegedly charged as much as $40,000 for each marriage and arranged up to 20 such unions annually over the past decade, according to Leah Foley, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Authorities said Gonzalez’s female employees, who also face charges, married men seeking legal immigration status in the United States.
“This conspiracy netted her $6 million during the course of the alleged scam,” Foley said Wednesday at a news conference at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. She added that Gonzalez boasted about investing the proceeds in businesses and property in the Dominican Republic, which she repeatedly called “my country.”
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley announces the arrest of six people accused of arranging sham marriages over the past decade, a scheme that allegedly generated millions of dollars, during a news conference Oct. 21, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
According to prosecutors, Gonzalez revealed details of the alleged operation to a witness cooperating with federal investigators. Foley said Gonzalez believed the person was an undocumented immigrant.
Gonzalez, 43, allegedly told the witness—who was recording the conversation—that Massachusetts was “so special” because it is a sanctuary state where “illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant.”
She also allegedly said she wanted to give each of her children land in the Dominican Republic that they could own in the future.
“Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country,” Foley said.
Foley said Gonzalez told the witness she stopped arranging fraudulent marriages at the end of 2024 because President Donald Trump was returning to office. She allegedly ended the operation altogether in 2025, saying immigration enforcement had become “a little harsh.”
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Photos released by the Department of Justice show Jessica Tavares, an alleged co-conspirator, marrying an undocumented immigrant from Brazil in May 2018. (Department of Justice)
Prosecutors identified Gonzalez as the alleged “ringleader” of the operation, which involved several other alleged co-conspirators.
Amara Pugh, Gonzalez’s 31-year-old secretary, as well as Jessica Tavares, 31; Erica Daniels, 29; and Jaylin Hill, 26, allegedly received payment to marry Gonzalez’s clients. Prosecutors also accused Gonzalez of entering into a sham marriage with an undocumented immigrant herself.
Court records released by the Justice Department included photographs from at least two of the alleged marriage ceremonies.
Officials said the women generally remained married to the men for years before divorcing them. Some then married other undocumented immigrants as soon as one month after their divorces.
A photo released by the Department of Justice shows Erica Daniels, another alleged co-conspirator, marrying an undocumented immigrant from Brazil in August 2024. (Department of Justice)
Foley also said Gonzalez allegedly defrauded the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by applying for and receiving benefits from 2019 through 2026. Prosecutors say she collected more than $124,000 from the program during that period.
“She did not list her income from her sham marriage business and did not list anyone else in her household, not the illegal alien she married and not the father of her children, who she referred to as her husband,” Foley said.
The Justice Department said Gonzalez, Pugh, Tavares and two other alleged conspirators were arrested Wednesday morning. Hill was already serving a state prison sentence for a gun offense.