The United States has revoked the permanent residency of two women related to Qassem Soleimani, the late major general who led Iran’s Quds Force, the foreign branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), from 1998 until his assassination in 2020.
In a statement on Saturday, the US Department of State revealed that Soleimani’s niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, and her daughter were arrested on Friday night.
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Both are currently being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as the US seeks their departure from the country.
The case raises questions about the limits of free speech rights in the US and the extent to which family members should be punished for their relations.
Citing media reports and social media posts, the State Department described Soleimani Afshar as “an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran”. It added that such speech would not be tolerated under US President Donald Trump.
“The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” the statement said.
The announcement comes at the five-week mark of the US and Israeli war on Iran, which began on February 28.
The case marks at least the second time this month that the US government has stripped legal immigration status from family members related to top leaders in Iran.
On social media, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took credit for the decision to nix the two women’s green cards. He pointed to Soleimani Afshar’s comments as the reason for her and her daughter’s arrest.
“This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter’s legal status,” Rubio wrote.
“She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the ‘Great Satan’.”
The State Department also highlighted Soleimani Afshar’s “lavish lifestyle” in Los Angeles in its statement. As part of the decision, Soleimani Afshar’s husband is also barred from entering the US.
Public pressure to remove relatives of Iran’s officials
According to the State Department, similar action was taken this month against Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of the late Ali Larijani, formerly the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
She and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi saw their legal US immigration status revoked, and they were subsequently barred from re-entering the country.
Larijani, one of the senior-most figures in the Iranian government, was killed in an Israeli air strike on March 17, as part of the ongoing war.
Soleimani, meanwhile, was assassinated in January 2020 in a US drone attack outside Baghdad International Airport during Trump’s first term in office.
The removal of Larijani’s and Soleimani’s relatives from the US follows pressure from conservative political figures and activists seeking their expulsion.
Shortly after Saturday’s announcement, far-right influencer and Trump ally Laura Loomer wrote on social media that she had reported Soleimani’s niece to the State Department, and she thanked Rubio for his actions.
“This is a big scalp,” she said of Soleimeini Afshar’s removal.
An online petition, started two months ago on the website Change.org, also called for Soleimeini Afshar to be deported, and after the war began, it gained more than 4,000 signatures.
Ardeshir-Larijani, meanwhile, had worked in oncology at the Emory University School of Medicine in the southern state of Georgia.
After Iran initiated a deadly crackdown against antigovernment protesters in December and January, demonstrators gathered at the university’s cancer institute to demand Ardeshir-Larijani’s removal.
A Change.org petition calling for her deportation had gathered 157,017 signatures, as of Saturday.
The petition underscored Ardeshir-Larijani’s familial ties to the government of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war.
“While she lives peacefully in the U.S., countless young Iranians are dying in Iran due to the policies and decisions made by Ali Khamenei and his inner circle, including her father,” the petition reads.
US Congressman Earl “Buddy” Carter of Georgia also lent his voice to the push, calling for Ardeshir-Larijani to have her state medical licence revoked.
“America’s medical institutions must not serve as a safe harbor for individuals connected by blood and loyalty to regimes that openly call for the death of Americans,” the Republican wrote in an open letter to Emory. “Patient safety, public trust, and national security demand decisive action now. ”
As of January, Ardeshir-Larijani was no longer employed by Emory, according to the school’s student newspaper, The Emory Wheel.