WASHINGTON (TNND) — The Trump administration announced it revoked the lawful permanent resident status of family members linked to Masoumeh Ebtekar, an Iranian regime politician who served as a spokeswoman during an Iran hostage crisis nearly 50 years ago.
Secretary Marco Rubio on Saturday said Eissa Seyed Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son, Seyed Mobin Hashemi, were detained in Los Angeles and are in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and are slated for deportation. He said Eissa Seyed Hashemi is Ebtekar’s son.
“Masoumeh Ebtekar — also known as ‘Screaming Mary’ — was the spokeswoman for the Islamic terrorists who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days — subjecting them to beatings, starvation, and mock executions,” Rubio wrote, in part, on X.”Her family should never have been allowed to benefit from the extraordinary privilege of living in our country,” he added. “America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families — and under the Trump Administration, it never will.”
Rubio said Ebtekar’s family was granted entry to the U.S. in 2014 during the Obama administration and later obtained lawful permanent resident status through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
The administration criticized that decision, saying the family should not have been allowed to settle in the United States given Ebtekar’s association with the embassy takeover.
It was not immediately clear whether the family has legal representation or plans to challenge the revocation in immigration court.
The announcement comes a week after Rubio terminated the legal status of the niece and grandniece of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad in early 2020.
Rubio previously said ICE detained Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, adding that they are facing possible removal from the U.S.
“Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living lavishly in the United States,” Rubio wrote on X on April 4.”Afshar is the niece of deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the ‘Great Satan.’ This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter’s legal status and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States,” Rubio added.
Earlier this month, Rubio also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, who is the daughter of former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Ali Larijani, and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi.
Ardeshir-Larijani and Motamedi are no longer in the U.S. and were barred from future entry.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.