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Guilty Plea Highlights Marriage Scams for Visas
Little Saigon is called the epicenter of fraud used to put immigrants on an illegal path to citizenship.

By Mai Tran
Times Staff Writer

August 7, 2006

They faked wedding photos and filled out bogus joint tax returns. They even wrote syrupy love letters, all part of a creative and ambitious effort to bring Vietnamese nationals into the United States under the banner of marriage.

On July 28, the woman federal authorities considered the mastermind of a Little Saigon-based wedding scam operation pleaded guilty to helping women get into the United States illegally. And although that closed a chapter in a three-year investigation dubbed Operation Newlywed Game, authorities say similar scams in ethnic enclaves like Orange County's Vietnamese community continue to thrive.

"Orange County is really where everyone learned to conduct this kind of fraud and where all the [visa] petitions are filed," said Brian DeMore, supervisory special agent for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. "Little Saigon happens to be where everyone cuts their teeth for this type of fraud."

Little Saigon, which sprawls across Westminster and Garden Grove, is a bustling commercial and residential district and the largest Vietnamese community in the nation.

The scam targeted in Operation Newlywed Game, allegedly spearheaded by defendant Julie Tran and others, was dismantled in late 2005 after investigators arrested 43 people on suspicion of conspiracy, misuse of visas and marriage fraud. Of those, 18 have been convicted or have pleaded guilty and 25 are facing trial. Another suspect, Vivian Diana Tran — no relation to Julie Tran — remains a fugitive.

Julie Tran, 50, of Garden Grove pleaded guilty to visa fraud and conspiracy. She faces up to 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines when she is sentenced in October.

Authorities said she was linked to 75 phony marriages and the filing of about 100 bogus visa petitions.

The scams are popular in Little Saigon, where immigrants learn of them through word of mouth, agents say. The perpetrators recruited U.S. citizens mostly at casinos — those who were on a losing streak and needed quick money, agents said.

The immigrants trying to get into the United States would pay the "facilitators" organizing the scams, who then would pay the U.S. citizens willing to pose as husbands.

"The experts were created [in Little Saigon], and there they remain," DeMore said. "As time goes on, they started to branch out" by spreading the idea elsewhere.

Investigation of a similar scheme in Washington state, dubbed Operation Pit Boss because some of the suspects were casino employees, broke it up in April with the arrest of two brothers, Loc Nguyen, 38, and Phuoc Nguyen, 42, of Vancouver. They charged foreigners up to $20,000 and paid recruits $1,500 to pretend to be spouses. They pleaded guilty four days before trial was to begin.

Authorities say many Vietnamese families in the U.S. will pool their money — up to $60,000 in cases involving Tran — to bring over relatives, hoping the bogus marriages will help the relatives obtain citizenship.

The scheme in Orange County began to unravel when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees in Laguna Niguel noticed that U.S. citizens were petitioning for more than one spouse to receive green cards. They passed the information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which launched an investigation and reviewed immigration files, travel histories and employment records.

Agents said recruiters were paid $1,000 for each U.S. citizen they referred who was willing to marry a foreigner and submit a visa petition. The U.S. citizen received $3,000 to $5,000 and travel expenses to fly to Vietnam or China, where a fake wedding would be held.

When they returned to the United States, they would be coached on what to say during their interviews with immigration officials.

For foreigners, marriage to a U.S. citizen is often the fastest way to come to the United States.

A spouse can become a permanent resident in about nine months and apply for citizenship after three years. For others, the current waiting time for a visa is at least 10 years in Asian countries where the scams are perpetrated, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for ICE.

"It's desperation in one hand and greed on the other," DeMore said. "You have people who are vulnerable, and you have people who are taking advantage of them."