Two women were arrested Friday night after the State Department ended their lawful permanent resident status. They are the niece and grandniece of Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard major general killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020.
In a statement Saturday, the State Department said Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It accused Soleimani Afshar of promoting Iranian regime propaganda, celebrating attacks on U.S. forces in the Middle East and denouncing America as the “Great Satan,” all while “enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles.” The statement called her “an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” citing press reporting and her own social media commentary.
Detention in Texas
CBS News confirmed on Monday that Soleimani Afshar is held at an ICE detention facility in Pearsall, Texas, where detainees wait for legal proceedings or deportation. It was not immediately clear whether her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, is held at the same site.
The Department of Homeland Security called Soleimani Afshar’s 2019 asylum claim “fraudulent.” It pointed to at least four trips back to Iran after she received a green card. Her husband has also been barred from entering the United States, the State Department said. DHS said the government is moving to strip the women of their green cards and, ultimately, deport them.
“It is a privilege to be granted a green card to live in the United States of America,” a DHS spokesperson told CBS News. “If we have reason to believe a green card holder poses a threat to the U.S., the green card will be revoked.”
A second case
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. She is the daughter of Ali Larijani, the former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was killed in an airstrike last month. The couple are no longer in the country.
“The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” Rubio said in a statement on X.
Rubio used the same rarely invoked powers last year to justify detaining and deporting several pro-Palestinian activists who had legal status. Federal court lawsuits have slowed those efforts, with plaintiffs arguing that Rubio’s determinations penalized their free speech.
Soleimani was Iran’s most recognizable battlefield commander. He was little known in Iran until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, and his standing grew after American officials called for his killing over his role in arming militants with roadside bombs that killed and maimed U.S. troops. Supporters of Iran’s theocracy hail him as a national icon.
Shortly after the arrests were announced, the far-right influencer Laura Loomer said on social media that she had reported Soleimani’s niece to the State Department.
