Palestinian Woman Tied to Deadly Israeli Bombing Faces Immigration Charges in US

A woman of Palestinian descent living in the suburbs of Chicago was arrested Tuesday on immigration charges for allegedly lying about her conviction for a deadly bombing in Israel more than 40 years ago. 

According to a federal indictment, Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, 66, lied on immigration papers when she emigrated from Jordan to the U.S. in 1995, and before she became a U.S. citizen in 2004, ABC News reports. 

The indictment was handed down in Detroit, where part of Odeh's naturalization process occurred. She was arrested on Tuesday morning at her home in Evergreen Park, which is southwest of Chicago. Odeh moved to Chicago from Detroit in 2004, said Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

If Odeh is convicted, she could face up to 10 years in U.S. prison for immigration fraud and could be divested of her U.S. citizenship. 

Odeh was arrested in a 1969 attack in which bombs were planted at a crowded Jerusalem supermarket and a British consulate, according to the indictment. One bomb, which was in the supermarket, exploded, killing two people and wounding many others. Israeli authorities said the attacks were planned by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. 

An Israeli court sentenced Odeh to life in prison in 1970, but she was released 10 years later in a prisoner exchange with the Popular Front; Israel released 76 prisoners in exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. The PFLP carried out many hijackings and other attacks in the 1960s and '70s, which killed many people. 

Odeh worked as an associate director at the Arab American Action Network, a nonprofit group in the Chicago area that advocates for new immigrants and fights against anti-Arab prejudice. 

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade said in a statement that anyone who is convicted of a terrorist attack cannot enter the United States.

"Upon discovery that someone convicted of a terrorist attack is in the United States illegally, we will seek to use our criminal justice system to remove that individual," she said.