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<\/p>\nAs people who had left Islam to convert to Christianity, America offered Liam Azizi and wife Hananeh Alikaram a safe space to practice their faith, making their treacherous journey across 11 countries from Iran to the US-Mexico border worth it.<\/p>\n
But now they\u2019re caught in the cross hairs of a Trump administration that\u2019s willing to break couples and families up.<\/p>\n
Leaving Islam in Iran is a crime, but only Azizi was offered asylum and has since settled in Sun Valley. Now, with Alikaram\u2019s request for asylum denied, she\u2019s being held in Louisiana awaiting deportation back to Iran, where she faces prosecution.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI was in the home church, because in Iran you cannot go to the church directly. It’s forbidden for people, ordinary people,\u201d Azizi told LAist. \u201c\u200aSome neighbor called the police or force and they came to our house and they captured us. They beat me.\u201d <\/p>\n
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Liam Azizi and Hananeh Alikaram. <\/p>\n
LAist has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment, but did not immediately hear back.<\/p>\n
Paulina Reyes-Perrariz, managing attorney with Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said when a family seeks asylum, their cases are typically connected. But with the current administration, she said we are seeing enforcement of family separation policies.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aThis speaks a lot on how the system is broken, how there is no full and fair asylum hearings all the time,\u201d Reyes-Perrariz said. \u201cIf the family is separated, they’re not able to call on them as a witness or they’re not able to relay their story that can help their family member.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Trump tenure was marked by children separated from their parents at the border. In the second term, she said, there has been \u201ca biased enforcement\u201d of separating children from parents for some nationalities.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aWhat we need now is comprehensive immigration reform. What we’re seeing is like this family where the system is working against them,\u201d she said. \u201cSomeone that has been fleeing persecution was able to show that they do meet the standard as an asylee because of their harm suffered in their home country. How is it that one person was able to show that and their family member wasn’t?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Liam Azizi and Hananeh Alikaram.<\/p>\n
Azizi ran a website where people could connect with prayer services in Iran, but that was shut down. Alikaram used to post YouTube videos, but because she didn\u2019t have a headscarf on, the government shut it down. Now, the couple have a pending court case in Iran because they converted to Christianity. Azizi is worried that if Alikaram is deported, she could be killed.<\/p>\n
The young couple\u2019s case is playing out against the backdrop of an immigration crackdown, driven by promises President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail. And in Iran, spurred by rising inflation after sanctions were reimposed by the United Nations, thousands of people have been protesting the current regime<\/a> for weeks. Outside observers say hundreds of people have been killed, sparking international condemnation<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThis is one of those situations where both the left and the right should be supportive,\u201d said Kevin Kang, \u200apastor at Tujunga United Methodist Church and Crescenta Valley United Methodist Church and a member of CLUE or Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.<\/p>\n Fleeing religious persecution\u00a0<\/p>\n Kang said he has encountered a handful of Iranians who have fled religious persecution in Iran and are seeking a safe haven in the U.S.<\/p>\n His church is currently providing shelter, converting a room to house refugees who fled Iran and were in the midst of their asylum journeys when they were detained by ICE agents, meaning – they had to restart their cases.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201dSo, you know, it’s not just people getting detained at the border. It’s people who legitimately got approved for asylum and then ICE decided to take them anyway,\u201d Kang said.<\/p>\n The current crackdown on immigration, he said, is not just about closing the borders, \u201cit\u2019s about race and tribalism.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the refugees from Iran have spoken out to church members sharing the horrific journeys they had to endure to come to America, navigating forests in Panama and the drug cartels in Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of our members who did vote for Trump because of the border issue, they even flipped where they were like, \u2018I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize how hard it is to get into our country like this, and how unjust the system is,\u2019\u201d Kang said.<\/p>\n For Azizi, the journey started in Brazil.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe could have been killed on that journey because it was full of cartels, full of danger. I saw a dead body in a Panama jungle in the Darien Gap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n