A man arrested for allegedly overstaying his student visa and making false claims to U.S. citizenship was a Minnesota corrections officer at the Lino Lakes prison until last fall.
Morris Brown, who is 45 and from Liberia, last entered the U.S. in 2014 on a student visa that was terminated the next year because he did not enroll in a full course of study, according to a Wednesday announcement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Brown, whom USCIS referred to as a “serial fraudster,” was “identified as part of the major enforcement operation that targeted suspected immigration fraud in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area last fall,” Operation Twin Shield.
He “tried every trick in the book to remain in the United States after losing legal status,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in the statement. “We will use every tool at our disposal to ensure he faces justice for his many violations of the law.”
Minnesota Department of Corrections “records reflect that it followed federal document verification requirements on hiring Mr. Brown,” the state agency said in a Wednesday statement.
“If these federal allegations are accurate, this individual engaged in sophisticated efforts to misrepresent their identity, extending well beyond Minnesota,” said DOC Commissioner Paul Schnell. “We are grateful to USCIS and ICE for their work in investigating and addressing immigration fraud.”
Brown, who USCIS said was arrested Jan. 15 in Minneapolis, is being held in a U.S. Enforcement and Removal Operations detention facility in El Paso, Texas. It wasn’t known Wednesday whether he has an attorney.
USCIS said they referred Brown’s case to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and he faces removal proceedings and potential criminal prosecution for immigration fraud.
Joined National Guard, tried to naturalize as U.S. citizen
Brown joined the Pennsylvania National Guard in 2014 and went absent without official leave in 2015, USCIS said. He was apprehended and discharged from the military under “other than honorable conditions” in 2022.
After he applied for a green card in 2020 under the Liberian Refugee Immigration Fairness program, USCIS denied his application “due to misrepresentations, including his failure to disclose prior military service and his false claim to U.S. citizenship,” the agency’s statement said. “In 2024, in another commission of fraud, he applied to naturalize as a U.S. citizen based on prior military service.”
USCIS investigators during Operation Twin Shield looked into Brown’s application for citizenship, and said they found evidence of marriage fraud and prior instances when he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen in official documents.
Brown was married in St. Paul in September 2023; he and his wife never lived together, according to a court document from April in Brown’s divorce filing in Ramsey County.
Worked for DOC for 2+ years
He was employed by the Minnesota Department of Corrections as a corrections officer from May 2023 to October 2025, with a base salary of $64,561, according to the department.
USCIS requested employment eligibility documentation for Brown last month, and the DOC says they provided Form I-9 records.
The state agency said it “verifies identity and employment eligibility for all new hires in compliance with federal law by completing Form I-9 on the date of hire.” Form I-9s, or employment eligibility verification, is a mandatory USCIS document used to verify the identity and employment authorization of all new employees hired to work in the U.S.
Brown had no complaints or discipline during his employment at DOC, and a spokesperson said the reason for an employee’s departure is private data under state law.
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