Teacher may face charges for sham marriage after helping Gazan man get US citizenship: 'Equalize playing field'

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, July 07, 2026

A California public school teacher who suggested during a recent webinar that she married a man living in Gaza to help him obtain U.S. citizenship could face prosecution if investigators determine the marriage was fraudulent.

Laura Pinho, 51, a dance teacher at Canoga Park Senior High and an activist for CodePink, a far-left organization known for protesting U.S. sanctions and military interventions, but typically only under Republican administrations, boasted of wanting to "equalize the playing field" by agreeing to an online marriage. 

A Utah County clerk's marriage record shows Pinho married Salem S.E. Abu Amra on April 5, according to reports. Utah is one of only a handful of states that allow remote marriage ceremonies.

In an emailed statement to The Christian Post on Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Zach Kahler said, “USCIS has zero tolerance for marriage fraud and is dedicated to identifying and eliminating these and other fraudulent actions that are designed to circumvent the immigration laws of the United States."

He added: "U.S. citizens must provide clear and convincing evidence that a marriage is bona fide, and not for the purpose of obtaining immigration benefits when petitioning for an alien spouse. USCIS verifies the authenticity of a marriage through investigation and the use of a comprehensive screening and vetting process. USCIS is constantly enhancing its investigative capabilities and will aggressively pursue individuals who engage in marriage fraud in an effort to obtain immigration benefits. These individuals should expect to be discovered and prosecuted for this illegal activity.”

The dance teacher’s marriage to Abu Amra came up during a June 16 CodePink webinar titled “Challenging Zionism in Schools.” According to the activist group’s website, the webinar is part of a 4-part workshop intended to pull “back the curtain on how organizations like the [Anti-Defamation League] use Holocaust education to justify state violence and silence Palestine.”

Pinho also supervises a high school chapter of the anti-Israel group, Students for Justice in Palestine, according to a Jewish News Syndicate report. 

During the webinar, Pinho declared: “Seeing what has happened to the Palestinian people and the complete erasure of their culture, their land, their rights — all of it — has led me to believe that any action we take, doesn’t matter what the action is, it’s in the right direction if it’s for Palestinian rights and freedoms.” 

The CodePink activist added that “it was symbolic of me to offer — you know, I have powers as an American citizen.”

“I have a passport that I was just born with,” she continued. “How can I live in this world if I don’t make every effort to equalize the playing field in whatever way that I can? All personal feelings aside, that, for me, was the motivating issue.”

In a statement to the New York Post, Pinho denied marrying Abu Amra solely to help him obtain citizenship, saying she is “wildly in love” with him. The public school teacher added that the reason she didn't express her love for him during the CodePink webinar was because her ex was within earshot at the time.

The Christian Post reached out to Abu Amra and the Los Angeles Unified School District for comment. This article will be updated if their responses are received.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the penalty for marriage fraud can be up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for any "individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws."

In March 2025, Pinho launched a GoFundMe campaign for Abu Amra, describing him as the primary caregiver for a family of five. Pinho also told potential donors that Abu Amra worked as an accountant and operated several businesses before the Israel-Hamas war. 

“Now, his days are spent securing clean water and foraging for food for his family and helping them stay alive,” she wrote about the man she eventually married after launching the fundraising campaign. 

The New York Post also reported that the content Pinho has shared on social media includes a post that referred to Jews as “Satanic bankers” and “impostors.” She also shared a post agreeing with media personality Candace Owens’ remark that “we are ruled by Satanic pedophiles who work for Israel.”

In a September 2019 Facebook post, Abu Amra wrote: “#We_will_not_forget #19th_anniversary_of_the_Al-Aqsa_Intifada.” 

The Al Aqsa Intifada, also known as the Second Intifada, which began in 2000, resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 Israelis due to a campaign of violence and terrorism targeting Israeli civilians on buses and other public places.

In another Facebook post from November 2019, Abu Amra described Bahaa Abu el-Atta as a “martyr” after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Bahaa Abu al-Atta was a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad military commander, according to a statement released at the time by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Immediately after Bahaa Abu al-Atta was killed, PIJ operatives began firing barrages of rockets at Israel. Initially, rockets were fired at the south, but a short time later, rockets targeted central Israel,” the statement claims.

“As of the morning of Thursday, November 14, 2019, close to 400 rockets had been fired. Several dozen civilians were treated for shock or minor injuries. In addition, houses in the southern Israeli cities of Sderot and Netivot were damaged. The roads near the Gaza Strip were closed and the trains in the southern Negev stopped running.”