A radical, Israel-hating California instructor claimed she married a Gaza resident on-line to assist him achieve American citizenship — and push her pro-Palestinian agenda.
Laura Pinho, a dance instructor at Canoga Park Senior Excessive Faculty in California, introduced her nuptials in a wild June 16 CODEPINK Zoom webinar known as “Difficult Zionism In Our Faculties.”
When CODEPINK activist Marcy Winograd congratulated her on her marriage and requested her to share particulars about her life, Pinho, 51, launched right into a pedantic monologue about how she solely married Salem S.E. Abu Amra to advance “Palestinian rights and freedoms.”
“I’ve energy as an American citizen. I’ve a passport that I used to be simply born with, and the way can I stay on this world if I don’t make each effort to equalize the enjoying discipline on no matter method that I can,” she stated within the webinar, first uncovered by the North American Values Institute.
Englewood New Jersey Mayor Michael Wildes — who can be an immigration lawyer and former federal prosecutor within the Japanese District of New York — advised The Put up that Pinho is enjoying with hearth.
“She could be prosecuted criminally, introduced up on federal conspiracy prices. Marriage fraud is among the high 5 crimes you possibly can perpetrate together with terrorism and medicines. The truth that any person could be silly sufficient to say they really did it makes it actionable for the federal authorities to research,” Wildes stated.
Marrying somebody to acquire a inexperienced card is federal crime and may carry a five-year jail sentence and as much as a $250,000 wonderful, in keeping with the Division of Justice.
The odd couple tied the knot April 5 in Utah, which permits marriages to be performed through Zoom, in keeping with information posted on-line by the Utah County Clerk and obtained by Israeli nonprofit NGO Monitor. Utah permits digital marriages through which each events aren’t in the identical location as long as they’ve secured a Utah County marriage license and supply legitimate ID and two witnesses, who additionally don’t need to be bodily current within the state.
The bride has a 5-year-old little one with Derek J. Reid, 51, an improv coach who additionally lives at her tackle, in keeping with public information.
Reid advised The Put up that he and Pinho have been home companions and by no means formally married, and that they’re at the moment separated and the 2 sleep in numerous rooms on the identical tackle. He stated he had no information of her marriage to Abu Amra.
He stated their relationship dissolved partially over Israel — she left the church the 2 used to attend collectively over its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian battle.
“She’s been radicalized — I don’t know something about that… the group she runs with… I’m anxious for her,” Reid stated.
She organized a GoFundMe for Abu Amra simply the month earlier than marrying him, through which she claimed he was the first caregiver for a household of 5.
“His days are spent securing clear water and foraging for meals for his household and serving to them keep alive,” Pinho asserted.
She claimed she first met her husband by means of mutual buddies on Fb and donated an undisclosed amount of cash to him, and he proceeded to message her to say thanks.
It’s unclear if Abu Amra has come to the U.S. The Division of Homeland Safety didn’t reply to The Put up’s Request for remark.
Pinho heads her college’s College students for Justice in Palestine membership and bragged about injecting her virulent anti-Israel politics into her dance curriculum.
She posted video from a college cultural occasion through which her college students carried out the “Dabke Dance” — a Palestinian people dance that has come to be related to terrorism.
“There may be a lot resistance in each the phrases and the actions of this music, so whereas I used to be instructing the scholars the precise steps of the dance, I might inform them the which means, the importance of what the steps symbolized,” the lefty instructor stated.
“After all, that prompted the query, nicely, why are they so linked to the land… after which I used to be in a position, as a result of they requested the query, to share the historical past of what has occurred to their land,” she added.
Pinho, whose college is a part of the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District, made $179,103 in pay and advantages as of 2024, in keeping with public information.
She boasts that she steered her college students into radical anti-Israel protests.
“College students have rights, powers and skills. . . . they do the preventing, they do the protesting, and we’re there to information them. . . . that’s the position that I’ve discovered as one of many co-sponsors truly for the College students for Justice in Palestine Membership,” she stated.
Pinho has an extended historical past of antisemitic posts on social media.
In December 2025, she posted a picture that said that Israel was created by “Satanic bankers” and that voiced neo-Nazi conspiracy theories that modern-day Jews are descended from Khazars, a nomadic Turkish tribe, not historical Israelites.
In February, she posted a picture of conspiratorial podcaster Candace Owens — who claimed that Jews kill Christians on Passover — with a quote attributed to her saying that America is dominated by “Satanic pedophiles who work for Israel.
“And he or she’s fallacious how??” Pinho captioned the picture.
The newlyweds apparently have one thing in widespread, Abu Amra posted a picture on Fb valorizing a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist.
“Mother and father ought to be alarmed by this instructor’s judgment,” NAVI Analysis Director Mika Hackner stated.
Pinho and the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District didn’t return requests for remark.
