US authorities arrest relatives of late Iranian military commander who were living in Los Angeles | US immigration
U.S. federal agents arrested the nephew and grandson of late Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani after revoking the lawful permanent resident status of Marco Rubio, the Trump administration’s top diplomat, officials said Saturday.
“Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are currently in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the State Department said in a statement. expression.
on your own expression US Secretary of State Rubio confirmed on social media that the mother-daughter pair were “pending removal” from the US; This development comes after the US and Israeli militaries declared war on Iran in late February, citing in part Iran’s history of sponsoring terrorism.
Saturday’s development regarding Soleimani Afshar also comes as the Trump administration seeks to revoke the legal immigration status of people it determines are aligned with America’s enemies.
Rubio’s statement stated that the Trump administration “will not allow our country to host foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
Authorities allege Soleimani Afshar celebrated military strikes against American personnel and praised Iran’s new supreme leader after the United States and Israel killed his predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a large-scale airstrike at the beginning of the war. They also accused him of labeling the United States as the “Great Satan.”
The statement about Soleimani Afshar also allegedly claimed that he gave “reluctant support” to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) while living a “lavish” lifestyle in Los Angeles, with US officials citing his Instagram account as evidence.
In addition to revoking Soleimani Afshar and her daughter’s lawful permanent resident (or green card) status, her husband was also officially banned from entering the United States, authorities said.
The maneuvers announced Saturday follow a separate move by Rubio to terminate the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of Ali Larijani, the former secretary of Iran’s National Security Council, and her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Both Ardeshir-Laricani and Motamedi have since left the United States and are under permanent entry bans, according to the State Department.
Soleimani Afshar’s father – his name is also spelled Quassem Suleimani – was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020, at the age of 62, during Donald Trump’s first presidency. He was widely considered the most powerful man in Iran after Khamenei and the country’s most influential military figure.
His importance was linked to his role commanding the elite Quds (Jerusalem) force of the Revolutionary Guard, the most powerful state security agency of the theocratic Iranian state.
Iran’s top officials and military commanders had vowed to avenge Soleimani’s killing.
In early 2023, the then-President of Iran, Ibrahim Raisi, said An audience in the capital Tehran: “We have not forgotten and will not forget the blood of Martyr Soleimani.”
Raisi, who died in the helicopter crash in 2024, also said: “Americans should know that the revenge for the blood of Martyr Soleimani is certain, the murderers and perpetrators will not sleep comfortably.”
