Jennifer Gonzalez, 43, boasted to a cooperating witness that Massachusetts was “so special” because it is a sanctuary state where “illegal aliens get a lot of help as an immigrant,” according to federal prosecutors who arrested her Wednesday morning.
The US citizen from Massachusetts collected up to $40,000 per sham marriage and arranged as many as 20 per year over roughly the last decade, said Leah Foley, the US attorney for the Massachusetts District, during a news conference Wednesday at the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston. Gonzalez’s female employees married the men seeking legal status, and in most cases they stayed married for years, got divorced, then married other illegal immigrants as early as a month later, authorities said.
Gonzalez allegedly spilled the scheme’s details to a witness she believed was an illegal immigrant, not knowing the individual was cooperating with federal law enforcement. She told this witness she had stopped holding phony marriages at the end of 2024 because President Donald Trump was returning to office, then shut down the operation entirely in 2025 because immigration enforcement had become “a little harsh,” Foley said.
The conspiracy netted Gonzalez $6 million during the course of the alleged scam, Foley told reporters. “She bragged that she invested her ill-gotten proceeds in businesses and property in the Dominican Republic, which she repeatedly referred to as ‘my country,'” the US attorney continued. Gonzalez also allegedly said her goal was to give all her children pieces of land in the Dominican Republic they could later own.
“Miss Gonzalez got rich off selling the American dream, all the while investing her money in another country,” Foley said.
Gonzalez’s secretary Amara Pugh, 31, along with Jessica Tavares, 31; Erica Daniels, 29; and Jaylin Hill, 26, were allegedly paid to marry Gonzalez’s clients. Gonzalez herself also allegedly entered into a sham marriage with an illegal immigrant. Photographs of at least two marriage ceremonies were included in court records shared by the Justice Department.
Another component of the alleged fraud involved Gonzalez applying for and receiving SNAP benefits from 2019 through 2026. She received more than $124,000 from the SNAP program over that time, according to prosecutors.
“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.
Gonzalez, Pugh, Tavares and two other conspirators were arrested Wednesday morning, the Justice Department said. Hill is already in state prison for a gun offense.
Gonzalez was described by prosecutors as the “ringleader” of the operation, though there were other alleged co-conspirators involved in the scheme.
