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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Two migrants have pleaded guilty to possessing counterfeit green cards after federal agents raided a home in Kansas City, Kansas, authorities said, marking the latest immigration fraud case pursued by the Trump administration.
The Justice Department said Santos Ramirez-Ramirez, 38, of Guatemala, and Yolanda Mendoza-Emiliano, 32, of Mexico, admitted to fraud and misuse of immigration documents after investigators found forged permanent resident cards and falsified Social Security cards during a search of a residence on South 16th Street.
Under the Trump administration's aggressive mass deportation policy, the government has also focused on cracking down on immigration fraud, pursuing cases involving counterfeit immigration documents, sham marriages, and other alleged schemes used to obtain legal status in the United States.
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Fake Green Cards Found
Prosecutors said the counterfeit green cards displayed the defendants' names and photographs but were linked to alien registration numbers assigned to other people. An alien registration number, or A-number, is a unique identifier used by U.S. immigration authorities to maintain an individual's immigration file. Authorities said the Social Security cards also contained invalid numbers.
Federal agents executed the search warrant on May 28. Prosecutors said agents entered the home after occupants did not comply with instructions to leave the residence.
Prosecutors said a third defendant charged with possessing false immigration documents has not yet resolved the case. Several others arrested at the home were later indicted on separate immigration offenses, including unlawful reentry after deportation, according to the DOJ.
The Justice Department said Mendoza-Emiliano was apprehended four times in Arizona over 10 days in April 2024 for illegally entering the United States and was allowed to voluntarily return to Mexico after each encounter. Sentencing dates for Ramirez-Ramirez and Mendoza-Emiliano have not yet been announced.
The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the principal investigative division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which handles cases involving immigration and document fraud, transnational criminal organizations, and other federal crimes.
“Counterfeit immigration documents are not harmless pieces of paper. They are tools used to undermine the integrity of our immigration system, conceal identities, and enable individuals to remain in the United States unlawfully,” HSI Kansas City Special Agent in Charge Rick Sabatini said in a press release on August 28. “HSI will aggressively investigate document fraud and work relentlessly with our federal partners to hold offenders accountable.”
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Sham Marriage Crackdown
"Falsified federal documents often include information that belongs to an actual person,” U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said in a press release. “Victims can have their lives turned upside down with the IRS, creditors, and other entities seeking money they don’t actually owe but are asked to pay because criminals are securing jobs, renting homes, and opening lines of credit using their information.”
Earlier this month, the Justice Department charged 11 people in what officials described as a decade-long scheme that allegedly helped hundreds of Chinese nationals obtain green cards through sham marriages to U.S. citizens. Prosecutors said the operation arranged more than 1,000 fraudulent marriages and generated millions of dollars in fees. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the alleged marriage-fraud network was among the largest ever prosecuted by federal authorities.
Authorities allege the defendants used word-of-mouth, social media and advertising to arrange fraudulent marriages for immigrants seeking permanent residency. Foreign nationals reportedly paid up to $100,000, while recruiters and facilitators received commissions for finding U.S. citizens willing to participate.
Prosecutors say some Americans were paid tens of thousands of dollars to enter marriages that existed only on paper. To make the relationships appear genuine, the network allegedly staged weddings, photo shoots and other events, submitting the images with immigration applications as evidence of bona fide marriages.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon and Cristina Diciu.
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