Iranian family detained for relative's key role in 1979 US Embassy hostage crisis seeks release

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An Iranian family that’s been living in the United States for a decade is demanding their release from immigration detention after they were arrested because of their relation to a central figure in the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Eissa Hashemi’s mother, Masoumeh Ebtekar, was known as “Sister Mary,” the chador-wearing spokesperson who mocked America during the crisis and condemned the hostages as “spies” to be prosecuted. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in April he was revoking the family's green cards over their ties to Ebtekar, and the Department of Homeland Security has since moved to deport Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, 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. They’ve been held in immigration facilities in Texas since they were arrested in early April in Los Angeles.

“There’s no specific allegations related to these three individuals other than their familial relationship," said Curtis Morrison, the family’s lawyer.

The Trump administration is tapping a rarely-applied provision of immigration law that lets the Secretary of State seek to remove immigrants from the country for foreign policy reasons. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said people shouldn’t be allowed to live in the country if they have close ties to senior Iranian officials associated with anti-U.S. activities.

“Allowing such individuals to remain in the United States could be exploited by the Iranian government for propaganda or political messaging and would undercut U.S. efforts to deter malign activities by signaling that regime-affiliated networks can continue to access U.S. privileges without consequence,” Pigott said in a statement. He didn't provide any examples or evidence related to the family.

Some activists in the Iranian diaspora have long pushed for children of Iranian government officials to be expelled from the U.S., saying their presence is an affront to those who fled the country and raises questions about national security. Several said they tried for years to get the government to take up these cases before the Trump administration took action.

In the U.S. embassy takeover, Ebtekar listed American “crimes” against Iran. With a black robe and headscarf that resembled a nun’s — earning her the nickname “Sister Mary” in the American news media — she demanded the U.S. turn over the deposed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Over the decades, however, she later joined with politicians seeking to reform Iran’s theocracy from the inside and became the Islamic Republic’s first female Cabinet member.

Tahmasebi’s family never thought they’d be arrested despite a smear campaign by angry critics who know little about their lives, she told The Associated Press in a phone interview from a detention center. The family is middle class with “absolutely no ties to money or power,” she said.

“Our assumption was as long as we abided by all rules and laws we would be safe,” she said. “The only thing we have wanted is for our son to have a normal life.”

Several legal experts said they believe there are constitutional problems with the law. A similar case involving a Columbia University activist who spoke out against the war in Gaza is moving through federal courts.

More than two months ago, U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader. There has been a ceasefire between the countries, but the U.S. last week rejected Tehran’s latest proposal to end the war.

Friends call the arrests a ‘witch hunt’

The couple left Iran more than a decade ago to pursue graduate studies in the U.S., and later obtained green cards through a government lottery. They lived in a gated apartment complex northwest of downtown Los Angeles and co-authored research papers in psychology. Tahmasebi taught psychology and statistics at a community college, while Hashemi taught at a private university.

Tahmasebi declined to speak about Iran. She became an educator because she wanted to be independent, and now she and her husband want to get back to teaching while her son returns to high school, she said.

“There is not an ounce of violence or any type of menace in either of us,” she said.

Stephanie Knox said she met Tahmasebi in graduate school. When Tahmasebi missed a coffee date after experiencing months of harassment, their close-knit group of friends worried, Knox said.

Tahmasebi and her son had been detained. Knox said they’ve been at a facility with barely edible food and glaring lights around the clock.

“It feels like a witch hunt,” Knox said. “Since when are we holding people accountable for their parents’ politics?”

Jake Hart became friends with the family after Tahmasebi participated in a play he worked on three years ago. Hashemi is kind and joyous, even during phone calls from detention, Hart said, and Tahmasebi is one of the smartest people he knows. He said neither are involved in any political movement but activists had been showing up at Hashemi’s school demanding he be fired, and at the family’s home.

“I think it’s pretty hard to deny this is Japanese internment camps and World War II-level thinking,” he said.

The government has until this week to respond to the family's petitions in Texas, court records show.

The Department of Homeland Security said the family was arrested because authorities believe they pose a threat to national security and U.S. foreign policy. They agency did not answer questions about the nature of the threat.

Immigration law experts said the administration is using a provision of law to challenge the constitutional rights of legal immigrants that has not been fully tested by the courts. The law, which was also invoked in the arrest of student activist Mahmoud Khalil, says an immigrant can be deported if the Secretary of State reasonably believes their presence “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, said the administration is using immigration laws to chill free speech and punish those it believes are political opponents.

“They look at immigration laws and war powers as part of their toolbox to inflict fear and punishment,” Altman said.

Eyes turn to relatives of Iranian officials

Hashemi is one of several relatives of Iranian officials the U.S. recently has sought to deport. The State Department this year also said it was revoking the green cards of the niece and grand-niece of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad in early 2020.

Kiyanoush Razaghi, a Maryland immigration lawyer from Iran, is among those advocating for such deportations. He runs an Instagram account featuring people living in the U.S. whom he says have family ties to Iran’s government. He said it was frustrating that people could live in the U.S. while their parents ran a government that retaliated against Iranians who rejected the country’s severe morality code.

“I said, ‘I’m done with this hypocrisy. I’m going to expose these people,’” said Razaghi.

Razaghi said three years of tips to Congress yielded no action until January, when someone at the Department of Homeland Security called requesting more information. He declined to identify that person.

Masih Alinejad, a high-profile activist and journalist in New York, said she began working nine years ago to call attention to Hashemi on social media and in news reports.

“I am thankful for this administration for finally taking a decisive action,” Alinejad said.

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Geller reported from New York. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell contributed to this report.