Two out of every three immigration cases investigated by federal fraud officers came back dirty.
USCIS Director Joe Edlow told Congress this week that since January 20, 2025, his agency's Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate has completed investigations into more than 21,000 cases — and found fraud in 65% of them. The numbers aren't ambiguous. They aren't edge cases or technicalities. They represent a system that was either asleep or complicit for years.
Edlow laid out the scale of the problem in blunt terms:
"Since January 20, 2025, USCIS officers have made nearly 33,000 fraud referrals to our Fraud Detection and National Security Directorate — a 138% increase compared to the average yearly referrals of the previous administration. Our Fraud Detection and National Security team completed investigations into more than 21,000 cases, identifying fraud in 65% of them. Our officers conducted over 7,000 site visits and more than 26,000 social media checks to identify national security, public safety, fraud, and anti-American concerns."
A 138% increase in fraud referrals doesn't mean fraud suddenly appeared. It means someone finally started looking.
The testimony centered on two operations that illustrate what enforcement looks like when an agency decides to do its job.
As reported by Breitbart, operation Twin Shield targeted marriage fraud, H-1B visa fraud, and student visa fraud in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region. It focused on more than 1,000 cases flagged for fraud or ineligibility indicators, attempted over 2,000 site visits, and completed nearly 1,500 in-person interviews. The results were immediate: immigration benefits denied, numerous Notices to Appear filed before immigration judges to initiate removal proceedings, and nearly a dozen arrests by ICE.
Edlow described the operation's downstream effects:
"The operation resulted in the denial of immigration benefits, the filing of numerous Notices to Appear before an immigration judge to initiate removal proceedings, and nearly a dozen arrests by our partners at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). We also gained significant evidence that led to Operation PARRIS (Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening) in Minnesota."
That second operation — PARRIS — is now re-reviewing thousands of refugee cases in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, with particular attention to refugees from Somalia. The initial focus covers 5,600 refugees who have not yet been granted lawful permanent resident status. USCIS stood up a new vetting center specifically for the effort, staffed with adjudicators conducting background checks, reinterviews, and merit reviews of refugee claims.
One operation led to the next because pulling one thread revealed how much of the fabric was frayed.
The 138% increase in fraud referrals compared to the previous administration's yearly average is a striking number — but it raises a harder question. If two-thirds of investigated cases turn up fraud, what was happening to those cases when nobody investigated them? They weren't disappearing. They were being approved.
For years, the immigration system operated on what amounted to an honor code backed by insufficient verification. Applications moved through pipelines designed for volume, not scrutiny. Site visits were rare. Social media checks — now numbering over 26,000 — were barely part of the process. The predictable result was a system that rewarded dishonesty and punished no one for exploiting it.
Edlow framed the shift as institutional, not incidental:
"Over the past year, USCIS has implemented rigorous measures to detect, deter, and disrupt fraud at every stage of the immigration process."
Every stage. Not just at the point of entry or the initial application, but through the lifecycle of a case — including post-admission, as PARRIS demonstrates.
The concentration of both operations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is notable. Twin Shield and PARRIS didn't land there by accident. The region's combination of high refugee populations, visa-dependent labor pipelines, and fraud indicators made it a natural focus. What investigators found was significant enough to justify standing up an entirely new vetting center.
Minnesota's political class has spent years treating its refugee resettlement numbers as a point of civic pride. The state's leadership rarely asked whether the process producing those numbers was sound. Now federal investigators are doing the asking, and the answers aren't flattering.
The usual objections will arrive on schedule. Critics will frame these investigations as hostile, as targeting vulnerable populations, as chilling legitimate immigration. That framing requires you to believe that verifying whether someone told the truth on a federal application is somehow unreasonable.
Every fraudulent approval doesn't just break the law — it takes a slot, a resource, or a benefit from someone who followed the rules. The people most harmed by immigration fraud are legal immigrants who played it straight and waited their turn while others gamed the system around them.
Nearly 33,000 fraud referrals. More than 21,000 investigations completed. Fraud was confirmed in 65% of them. Site visits. In-person interviews. Arrests. Removal proceedings initiated. A new vetting center built from the ground up.
This is what it looks like when the government decides the immigration system should work as written — not as a rubber stamp.
