PLO terrorist convicted of bombing Israeli bus loses US citizenship

A Palestinian Islamic jihadist who was imprisoned in Israel for a bombing on a civilian bus has been sentenced by the US District Court in Los Angeles to jail, and then to be deported to Jordan, for feloniously acquiring U.S. citizenship.

By Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

A Southern California man who was imprisoned in Israel for trying to bomb a bus has been sentenced in the U.S. for lying to immigration authorities when he became a citizen.

Fifty-one-year-old Vallmoe Shqaire of Downey was sentenced to nine months in federal prison Friday for unlawfully procuring U.S. citizenship in 2008. He also was stripped of his citizenship and will be deported to Jordan.

Bus bombing, Megiddo Junction, 2002 — Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Photo: IDF blog

Shqaire spent four years in prison for helping in the 1988 attempted roadside bombing of a bus. The pipe bomb exploded but nobody was hurt. At that time, Shqaire had ties to the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was then considered a terrorist organization by the U.S.

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Shqaire pleaded guilty in January to concealing the bombing conviction and PLO ties on his citizenship application.

 

View original Israel Hayom publication at:
https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/04/28/man-convicted-of-bombing-israeli-bus-loses-us-citizenship/

 

More about this bum from a CNN article:
Shqaire was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Israel in 1991 for, among other things, placing a bomb “with the intent to cause death or harm.” A military appeals court later reduced the sentence to seven years. Shqaire was released after serving just four years following the 1993 Oslo peace accords and subsequent agreements.

He first came to the United States on a visitor’s visa in 1999, records show.
That same year, he got married to a US citizen in a so-called green card marriage. He paid his bride, whom he first met on their wedding day, $500, the woman would later tell federal investigators.

Bus bombing, Tel Aviv 2006 — Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Photo: IDF blog

His attempt to obtain a green card through the marriage failed when it ended in divorce in 2002. But Shqaire married a second time later that same year. This time the union lasted longer, and he was able to apply for and receive status as a legal permanent resident. Throughout the process, he indicated he’d never been arrested and was not a member of any group, according to records.

In 2008, in the final stage of his pursuit of US citizenship, he was questioned under oath by an immigration officer in Los Angeles. He again omitted his past conviction and ties to the PLO.

The US immigration officer who handled Shqaire’s application said she relied on him to “provide complete and truthful answers” about his criminal past and associations, according to court records. Had he done so, the records state, she would have requested further documentation.

Instead, she approved his application.

Bus bonbing, Haifa, 2003 — Palestinian Islamic Jihad – Photo: IDF blog

Two years later, Shqaire came onto the radar of US terrorism investigators, according to documents and interviews. He was questioned about repeated money transfers to the Palestinian city of Ramallah and was characterized in court records as a “subject of interest” to the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Los Angeles in 2011.

Shqaire was never charged in connection with the money transfers, but he was convicted of grand theft in 2011 for his involvement in a credit card fraud scheme. He was given a suspended sentence of five years in state prison and spent four months in county jail, records show. He was also placed on probation for five years.

Full article here