An Iranian family detained in the United States is asking a court to stop the government’s plan to deport them, arguing that their detention hinges on who their relatives are rather than on any specific allegations against them. The family is being held in immigration facilities in Texas after arrests in early April in Los Angeles, following what the government has described as ties between the family and a central figure from the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.
The family’s fight centers on Masoumeh Ebtekar, a former Iranian government official known in U.S. media during the hostage crisis as “Sister Mary.” Ebtekar, described in reporting as a chador-wearing spokesperson during the takeover, later became the Islamic Republic’s first female cabinet member after joining politicians who sought to reform Iran’s theocracy from within. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in April that he was revoking the family’s green cards because of their ties to Ebtekar, and the Department of Homeland Security then moved toward deporting Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deportations while the family’s legal petitions challenge the legality of their detention. The family’s attorney, Curtis Morrison, said there are “no specific allegations related to these three individuals other than their familial relationship.” The government has until this week to respond to the family’s petitions in Texas, according to court records cited in the reporting.
U.S. officials argue that foreign-policy concerns justify using a rarely applied immigration authority that allows the secretary of state to seek removal of immigrants for diplomatic reasons. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement that people should not be allowed to live in the country if they have close ties to senior Iranian officials associated with anti-U.S. activities, and Pigott added that allowing such individuals to remain in the United States could be exploited for propaganda or political messaging.
Some legal experts and activists have criticized the approach as constitutionally problematic. They point to the broad nature of the foreign-policy removal standard and say it has not been fully tested by courts. The provision cited in reporting has been described as allowing removal if the secretary of state reasonably believes an immigrant’s presence “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
The detained couple and their supporters describe the arrests as sweeping punishment for political association they say does not reflect the family’s own activities. In phone calls from detention facilities, Tahmasebi told The Associated Press that she and her husband have “absolutely no ties to money or power,” and that their son’s life is what they most want to stabilize. Tahmasebi also said, “Our assumption was as long as we abided by all rules and laws we would be safe,” and “The only thing we have wanted is for our son to have a normal life.”
Friends and neighbors portrayed the couple as educators and researchers rather than political operatives. Stephanie Knox said she met Tahmasebi in graduate school and described months of harassment before the family’s detention, and Knox said the arrests felt like “a witch hunt.” Another friend, Jake Hart, said he became friends with the family after Tahmasebi participated in a play he worked on and said neither spouse is involved in any political movement, while he described activists pressing for Hashemi to be fired and showing up at the family’s home.
The Associated Press reporting also said U.S. and Israeli forces have recently attacked Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader, and that although there has been a ceasefire between the countries, the U.S. rejected Tehran’s latest proposal to end the war last week. In that broader context, experts say the administration has used immigration law and war powers together, rather than treating the family’s case as a narrow question of conduct.
Reporting also described other relatives of Iranian officials whom U.S. authorities have sought to deport this year, including the niece and grand-niece of Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad in early 2020. Some advocates for those removals, including Kiyanoush Razaghi, a Maryland immigration lawyer, said on social media and in interviews that they have pressed the government for years to act against people with family ties to Iran’s government, and that only in January did the Department of Homeland Security contact someone seeking additional information.
The case comes as the family’s legal challenge moves forward, with the government expected to respond in Texas after the federal judge’s temporary order halted deportations.