The United States revoked the permanent resident status of three Iranian nationals with ties to the Islamic Republic and placed them in immigration custody, the State Department said on Saturday.
In a statement, the department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had terminated the green card status of Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi and their son, who are now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending removal.
“Eissa Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, also known as “Screaming Mary,” the infamous spokeswoman for the Islamist militants who stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days,” read the statement.
The department said the three entered the United States in 2014 and were granted permanent residency in 2016 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
It also said Rubio had recently revoked the legal status of relatives of former IRGC commander Ghasem Soleimani and of the daughter and son-in-law of former Iranian official Ali Larijani.
Rubio had earlier terminated the lawful permanent resident status of the niece and grandniece of former IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, leading to their arrest by federal agents last week.
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the State Department.
The department alleged that Soleimani Afshar had publicly supported Iran’s government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while living in the United States, including through social media posts praising attacks on US forces and promoting regime messaging.
The statement also said Rubio earlier terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of Ali Larijani, along with her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi, both of whom are no longer in the United States and are barred from reentry.
