U.S. revokes legal residence status of former Iranian Guard leader Soleimani’s family, takes them into ICE custody

The niece and grand-niece of deceased Iranian Revolutionary Guard Major Gen. Qasem Soleimani were arrested Friday night after their lawful U.S. permanent resident status was terminated.

The State Department said Saturday in a statement that Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Soleimani Afshar promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, and denounced America as the “Great Satan,” all while “enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles,” the statement said. 

“As identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Soleimani Afshar’s 2019 asylum claim was “fraudulent,” citing at least four trips back to Iran after being issued a green card. Her husband has also been barred from entering the U.S., the State Department said. The government is now moving to strip them of their green cards and ultimately deport them, DHS said.

“It is a privilege to be granted a green card to live in the United States of America. If we have reason to believe a green card holder poses a threat to the U.S., the green card will be revoked,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. 

Iranian military leader  Soleimani died in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq in January 2020. He was the architect of Iran’s regional military activities and is hailed as a national icon among supporters of Iran’s theocracy.

Relatively unknown in Iran until the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Soleimani’s popularity and mystique grew after American officials called for his killing over his help in arming militants with penetrating roadside bombs that killed and maimed U.S. troops.

A decade and a half later, Soleimani had become Iran’s most recognizable battlefield commander, ignoring calls to enter politics but growing as powerful, if not more, than its civilian leadership.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Larijani, and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani was killed in an airstrike last month. His daughter and husband 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 invoked the same rarely used powers last year to justify the detention and deportation of several pro-Palestinian activists with legal status, including Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil. Those efforts have been hindered by federal court lawsuits that allege Rubio’s determinations penalized the activists’ free speech.