Federal officials have indicted two Texas residents and several entities in connection with a massive visa fraud and racketeering conspiracy that used the United States’ legal immigration system to obtain green cards and citizenship for foreign nationals.
According to a press release from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Abdul Hadi Murshid, 39, and Muhammad Salman Nasir, 35, both originally from Pakistan, are charged with multiple counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, visa fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and conspiracy under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The indictment accuses the two men, along with a legal firm and a corporate entity, of exploiting the H-1B, EB-2, and EB-3 immigration categories to generate a flood of bogus green card applications.
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If convicted, the defendants may face up to 20 years in federal prison.
According to the indictment, Murshid and Nasir coordinated a complex plot to create work possibilities by placing classified ads in a daily periodical for positions that did not exist. The Department of Labor (DOL) required firms to first offer positions to qualified US residents before sponsoring foreign immigrants, which this strategy aimed to meet.
After the DOL accepted the labor certifications, the defendants allegedly filed fraudulent petitions with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to obtain immigrant visas. Prosecutors allege that the men subsequently assisted visa applicants in filing for permanent residency by falsely claiming employment at jobs that never existed. To maintain the appearance of validity, the defendants redirected monies from visa applicants back to themselves as fictitious payroll, resulting in forged job records.
According to the DOJ, these actions are a severe abuse of the country’s lawful immigration systems and may have far-reaching consequences. Federal investigators, including the FBI, can now question previous clients of the legal firm implicated and use them as witnesses to find more instances of visa-related fraud.
The allegations come amid a broader drive by both the Biden and Trump administrations to strengthen enforcement of fraud in white-collar immigration programs. Approximately 1.5 million foreign professionals currently occupy white-collar jobs in the United States through programs such as the H-1B and EB green card tracks. While these programs are meant to address specialized labor shortages, critics claim they are frequently used to replace qualified American workers and drive down salaries.
“These programs create myriad incentives and opportunities for graft, scams, and fraud in the legal migration system,” according to a DOJ statement. “For decades, the government has done little to find or reduce the fraud, despite the massive damage to Americans’ white-collar professionals, per capita productivity, and national innovation.”
In response to rising pressure, officials have promised to step up enforcement operations. Matthew Galeotti, Director of the DOJ’s Criminal Division, recently announced that federal immigration infractions, along with procurement fraud and customs violations, have been elevated to the department’s top enforcement priorities.
Andrea Lucas, the new head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), underlined that commitment, advising employers and staffing services against abusing immigration restrictions to exclude American workers. “If you are part of the pipeline contributing to our immigration crisis or abusing our legal immigration system via illegal preferences against American workers, you must stop,” Lucas said in an update on the matter.
Dan Kotchen, an attorney at Kotchen & Low LLP who has filed numerous lawsuits against staffing firms for discrimination and visa fraud, applauded the DOJ’s enhanced focus. “We hope that what they do to enforce laws has teeth and leads to change,” he shared with reporters. Kotchen has used the False Claims Act to prosecute fraud in areas where federal enforcement has lagged.
