1995
It had been over 50 years since anyone in the Wizard and Magic world had seen or heard from Gellert Grindelwald. He had been arrested and taken to Numengard shortly before World War II ended. The castle had been set on fire and burned to the ground. Many in the Wizard and Magic community believed that he was not dead and would surface at some point. A task force was created to try to figure out if Grindelwald was still alive and if he was, where was he. As the years and decades followed and no sign of nor emergence of Grindelwald, the general belief was that he was probably dead. Queenie had disappeared nearly 20 years earlier and many people believed that Grindelwald either killed her or had her killed. He had told people that she was disloyal to him and needed to be punished.
Little did they know that Grindelwald had escaped on a US military cargo plane. He was dressed in an US military uniform. Many in the cargo plane believed that he had injured his leg in battle and couldn't talk as the result of his wounds. He was wearing sunglasses and told people he had sensitive eyes. He was only able to communicate thru writing things down on paper. The cargo plane landed in England and they the soldiers went by boat from England to New York. Grindelwald didn't stay in New York. He got on a train and headed for the mid-west. He was going somewhere were no one knew him and where people were hostile to those who practiced magic and witchcraft. North Dakota was a good place to hide out as Grindelwald was aware of who possessed magic and witchcraft abilities.
Grindelwald realized that his days of controlling the wizards, witches and magicians were over. If he was to successfully hid out, he needed to be low key. He had cast a powerful spell which made him 25 to 30 years younger. Anyone that knew him in the past wouldn't recognize him. He had used powerful spells to keep himself hidden. He also had the 3 wands which protected him against those who had put him in prison.
He was still going to unleash evil in the world and he decided that the United States would be the place to do it.