A family who has lived in the United States for a decade is demanding release from immigration detention, saying they are being punished for a relative’s role in a 47-year-old historical event. Eissa Hashemi and his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, along with their young son, were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in early April in Los Angeles, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he was revoking their green cards over the family’s connection to Hashemi’s mother, Masoumeh Ebtekar.
Ebtekar, known during the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran as “Sister Mary,” served as the chador-wearing spokeswoman who, at age 19, appeared before television cameras mocking America and condemning the 52 American hostages as “spies” to be prosecuted. She went on to become a prominent Iranian politician and served as a vice president under former President Mohammad Khatami. Hashemi, who was born in Iran, emigrated to the United States as a teenager and has lived in the country legally for ten years with his American-born wife and their son.
A federal judge has temporarily barred the government from deporting the family after they filed petitions challenging the legality of their detention. The family’s attorney, Curtis Morrison, argued in court filings that the government is applying guilt by association, punishing people who have no connection to the 1979 events beyond a familial relationship. The family has been held in immigration facilities in Texas since their arrest.
Rubio said in April that revocations of green cards and visas extended to any Iranian relative of figures involved in the 1979 hostage crisis. The policy is part of a broader push by the Trump administration since the outbreak of the Iran war to revoke the immigration status of Iranian nationals tied to the Iranian government. MSI previously reported on Rubio’s broader revocation of green cards and visas tied to the Iranian government, which preceded a wave of ICE arrests across the country. The administration has also targeted relatives of Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general killed in a 2020 U.S. drone strike.
The family says they have no involvement in Ebtekar’s actions during the 1979 crisis and have built their lives in the United States. Hashemi runs a small business in Los Angeles; Tahmasebi is a U.S. citizen. Their son attends school and has no connection to Iran beyond his father’s birth. The Department of Homeland Security has moved to deport the family, arguing their presence in the United States is a “national security concern” given Ebtekar’s role in the crisis. Critics of the administration’s policy, including immigrant rights groups and some Democratic lawmakers, have called the detention a case of collective punishment that violates due process.