A Palestinian American who was sentenced in 1991 to 10 years in prison—though had his sentence reduced—for attempting to blow up a bus in Israel three years earlier had his U.S. citizenship revoked for lying to the U.S. government, which reportedly knew about his past since at least 2010.
Vallmoe Shqaire, 51, who served four years in an Israeli prison, lied about his past to U.S. immigration officials when he entered America in 1999—something he should have been barred from doing by not revealing his involvement in the attempted attack and his ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
He paid a woman $500 to marry him for the sole purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship, which he finally did in 2008.
Shqaire was charged in September for illegally getting his American citizenship.
“By concealing his violent, terrorist conduct, defendant circumvented the procedures our immigration system depends upon,” wrote prosecutors in a sentencing memorandum.
