A radical, Israel-hating California teacher claimed she married a Gaza resident online to help him gain American citizenship — and push her pro-Palestinian agenda.
Laura Pinho, a dance teacher at Canoga Park Senior High School in California, announced her nuptials in a wild June 16 CODEPINK Zoom webinar called “Challenging Zionism In Our Schools.”
When CODEPINK activist Marcy Winograd congratulated her on her marriage and asked her to share details about her life, Pinho, 51, launched into a pedantic monologue about how she only married Salem S.E. Abu Amra to advance “Palestinian rights and freedoms.”
“I have power as an American citizen. I have a passport that I was just born with, and how can I live in this world if I don’t make every effort to equalize the playing field on whatever way that I can,” she said in the webinar, first uncovered by the North American Values Institute.
Englewood New Jersey Mayor Michael Wildes — who is also an immigration attorney and former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York — told The Post that Pinho is playing with fire.
“She can be prosecuted criminally, brought up on federal conspiracy charges. Marriage fraud is one of the top five crimes you can perpetrate including terrorism and drugs. The fact that somebody would be foolish enough to say they actually did it makes it actionable for the federal government to investigate,” Wildes said.
Marrying someone to obtain a green card is federal crime and can carry a five-year prison sentence and up to a $250,000 fine, according to the Department of Justice.
The odd couple tied the knot April 5 in Utah, which allows marriages to be conducted via Zoom, according to records posted online by the Utah County Clerk and obtained by Israeli nonprofit NGO Monitor.
Utah allows virtual marriages in which both parties aren’t in the same location so long as they have secured a Utah County marriage license and provide valid ID and two witnesses, who also don’t have to be physically present in the state.
The bride has a 5-year-old child with Derek J. Reid, 51, an improv coach who also lives at her address, according to public records.
Reid told The Post that he and Pinho were domestic partners and never officially married, and that they’re currently separated and the two sleep in different rooms at the same address. He said he had no knowledge of her marriage to Abu Amra.
He said their relationship dissolved partially over Israel — she left the church the two used to attend together over its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“She’s been radicalized — I don’t know anything about that… the crowd she runs with… I’m worried for her,” Reid said.
She organized a GoFundMe for Abu Amra just the month before marrying him, in which she claimed he was the primary caregiver for a family of five.
“His days are spent securing clean water and foraging for food for his family and helping them stay alive,” Pinho asserted.
She claimed she first met her husband through mutual friends on Facebook and donated an undisclosed amount of money to him, and he proceeded to message her to say thanks.
It is unclear if Abu Amra has come to the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to The Post’s Request for comment. --->READ MORE HERE
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