Thread: Chicago Activist Gets Prison Term for Immigration Crime (update)

Chicago Activist Gets Prison Term for Immigration Crime

DETROIT — Mar 12, 2015, 2:29 PM ET
By ED WHITE Associated Press

A judge sentenced a Chicago activist to 18 months in federal prison Thursday for failing to disclose her convictions for bombings in Israel when she applied to be a U.S. citizen.

Rasmieh Odeh, 67, also was stripped of her citizenship and eventually will be deported, likely to Jordan. But she will remain free while she appeals the case.

Odeh helps run Chicago's Arab American Action Network, an education and social services agency, and more than 100 supporters filled the courtroom or spilled over into another room to watch a video feed of the hearing.

In 2004, she answered "no" on her U.S. citizenship application in Detroit when asked about any past criminal record. Odeh was convicted of two bombings in Jerusalem in 1969, including one that killed two people at a market.

She insists that she believed the questions were related to U.S. crimes, although the form said "EVER."

Speaking to the judge in Arabic and English, Odeh said she's not a "terrorist" or a "bad woman." She recalled a tumultuous life overseas due to conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis and said it would be "torture" to the many Arabic women she has helped in the Chicago area if she was sent to prison.

U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain settled on an 18-month sentence, far below the five years recommended by federal prosecutors. He said he believes Odeh was a terrorist but has dramatically turned her life around in the last 20 years in the U.S.

Nonetheless, the judge said the case wasn't about politics, community service or the Middle East.

"This case is about honesty and being truthful and saying the right thing under oath. ... In some ways, Ms. Odeh, you don't have a lot of respect for the law," Drain said. "If you did, you would have been honest and truthful."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel said Odeh is seen as an "icon" among terrorists. He said her community work in Chicago was irrelevant.

"Every single day she has been in the United States has been illegal," Tukel said. "Every single day has been based on fraud."

Defense attorney Michael Deutsch argued that Odeh didn't deserve a prison term on top of mandatory deportation.

"The sentence is excessive given all the facts in the case but it could have been worse," he said outside court.

Odeh's supporters traveled from Chicago to attend the hearing. They marched and chanted outside with Palestinian flags, led by a man with a bullhorn.

"DOJ, let's be clear, Rasmieh is welcome here," they said, referring to the Department of Justice.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...crime-29580520

Chicago activist sentenced for immigration crime appeals


FILE - In this Nov. 10, 2014 file photo, Rasmieh Odeh speaks to the media outside federal court in Detroit. The Chicago activist is appealing the 18-month prison sentence she was given for lying about her convictions for bombings in ... more >


By - Associated Press - Wednesday, June 10, 2015

DETROIT (AP) - A Chicago activist is appealing the 18-month prison sentence she was given for lying about her convictions for bombings in Israel when she sought U.S. citizenship.

A federal judge in Detroit in March also stripped Rasmieh Odeh of citizenship, meaning she’ll be deported, but she was allowed to remain free while she appealed.

Odeh’s lawyer says Tuesday’s appeal in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals asks for a sentence that includes no more time behind bars.
Odeh was convicted of two bombings in Jerusalem in 1969, including one that killed two people at a market. But in 2004, she answered “no” on her U.S. citizenship application in Detroit when asked about any past criminal record. She also didn’t disclose it a decade earlier when she was granted a visa.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3cgCs478L
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

Does our stupid government expect criminals to disclose their past on a visa form or citizenship application? REALLY???!!!!!

Is this our "national security" that we pay billions for every year??!! REALLY???!!!!!

Shut it down. Stop this stupidity. End this madness. Pass at least a 10 Year Moratorium on All Immigration and past it NOW.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS DETROIT — Jun 13, 2016, 2:26 PM ET

A Chicago activist convicted of lying to get U.S. citizenship has returned to a Detroit court for the first time since a judge was ordered to take another look at her claims of post-traumatic stress disorder from her time in an Israeli prison.

Rasmieh Odeh's conviction could be thrown out if federal Judge Gershwin Drain says testimony by a PTSD expert is reliable. He excluded it during a 2014 trial.

Attorneys and the judge discussed future hearings Monday. A second trial, if necessary, would be in 2017.

Odeh was convicted for failing to disclose during the citizenship process that she was convicted of bombings in Israel decades ago. She said she believed the questions were related to U.S. crimes.

Odeh is affiliated with the Arab American Action Network in Chicago.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...-case-39821213

Chicago Activist Who Helped Organize Women’s March Loses US Citizenship and Will Be Deported

She failed to disclose convictions for her role in bombings that killed 2 in Jerusalem

By Jack Phillips, Epoch Times | August 18, 2017 AT 4:11 PM
Last Updated:
August 18, 2017 4:22 pm


[COLOR=#767676 !important](Twitter)

A top Chicago activist has lost her U.S. citizenship and will be deported after failing to disclose her convictions for bombings in Jerusalem years ago.

“This is not a political forum for you to fan the flames of Israeli-Palestinian disputes. … It’s about the application you filled out,” U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain told Rasmea Odeh during her court appearance in Detroit, The Associated Press reported, as Odeh criticized the United States and Israel.

The 70-year-old activist, who is known for helping Arab women around the Chicago area, pleaded guilty in April for concealing her previous convictions. Her case became a political flashpoint when she joined the anti-President Donald Trump Women’s March and later helped organize the Day Without Women strike.

He “praised [Odeh] for her years of service to Palestinian women in the Chicago area. But he [said] the immigration system relies on honesty,” as AP reported.

Drain said she should get no prison time, and now, Odeh will wait for the federal government to deport her—likely to Jordan.

In 1970, she was convicted of two bombings, including one that killed two at a supermarket in Jerusalem.

But Odeh has said that she was tortured into confessing. She claims she was tried in a military court was sexually assault by interrogators.

She was released in 1979 as part of a swap with the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine.

Judge Gershwin A. Drain, who made the ruling. (United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan)

“In 1969, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine conducted two bombings in Jerusalem, Israel,” acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Lemisch said, ClickonDetroit.com reported.

“One was at a Supersol supermarket, in which two individuals were killed and many more wounded. The second bombing was at the British Consulate. Defendant Odeh was arrested and charged with participation in the bombings.”

Lemisch said that during interviews, other participants named her as the person who selected the Jerusalem supermarket as the bombing target. He said that Odeh scouted the location and planted the bomb.

As the Jerusalem Post noted, the bomb blast killed Hebrew University students and roommates Leon “Arie” Kanner, 21, and Edward Jaffe, 22,

“For 20 years, she lived here peacefully, honorably and gave more than many U.S. citizens,” said her attorney Michael Deutsch, it was reported. She works for the Arab American Action Network, which provides services and education. He also cited her relatively advanced age as a reason not to deport.

She got a visa to the United States in 1994 and lost her citizenship in 2004. In both applications, she didn’t disclose her arrest and convictions, officials said.

Odeh was convicted in 2014 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The conviction was overturned, and she chose to make a deal with the government.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2283...l-be-deported/

Love it!

Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man

Love it!

YES!!!

Arrest and DEPORT all these activists mouthing off in OUR country.

Get them all out! Go mouth off on your soil.

Originally Posted by Beezer

Arrest and DEPORT all these activists mouthing off in OUR country.

Get them all out! Go mouth off on your soil.

AGREE 100%.