ICE agents arrested the niece and grand-niece of slain Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani over the weekend, picking both women up in the Los Angeles area after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards and terminated their legal status in the United States.
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her 25-year-old daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, are now in ICE custody pending removal from the country, Rubio announced on X. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint announcement Saturday laying out the case against both women, a case built largely on what officials described as fraudulent asylum claims and Afshar's open support for Iran's terrorist regime.
The arrests mark the second time this week the Trump administration has moved to strip legal status from foreign nationals with ties to hostile regimes, and they send a clear signal: a green card is not a shield for those who cheer on attacks against American soldiers while enjoying the freedoms those soldiers defend.
DHS laid out a detailed timeline of the women's immigration history. Afshar entered the United States in 2015 on a tourist visa. That same year, Hosseiny arrived on a student visa. Both were granted asylum in 2019 by a judge. Afshar then secured a green card in 2021 under the Biden administration, while Hosseiny received hers in 2023.
But DHS said Afshar made at least four trips back to Iran after receiving protected status, travel the department described as proof that her asylum claims were fraudulent.
"Her trips to Iran illustrate her asylum claims were fraudulent," DHS stated on X.
The logic is straightforward. Asylum is granted to people who claim they cannot safely return to their home country. If a person then flies back to that country multiple times, the foundation of the claim collapses. That Afshar reportedly did so at least four times raises an obvious question: how did the system miss this for years?
The State Department's statement went further than the asylum fraud angle. It accused Afshar of actively promoting Iranian regime propaganda while living in the United States. The language was specific and pointed, as the Washington Examiner reported:
"While living in the United States, she promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised the new Iranian Supreme Leader, denounced America as the 'Great Satan,' and voiced her unflinching support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terror organization."
The statement added that Afshar "pushed this propaganda for Iran's terrorist regime while enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles, as attested to by her frequent posting on her recently deleted Instagram account." The California Post reportedly obtained images from those accounts before they were scrubbed.
So here was a woman who claimed she needed protection from Iran, received that protection, then used her platform in America to celebrate the very regime she supposedly fled, including the IRGC, which the U.S. government has designated a terrorist organization. And she did it all from Los Angeles, living what officials described as a designer lifestyle.
ICE agents were dispatched to make the arrests in and around Los Angeles. The New York Post reported that Afshar was spotted outside her two-bedroom residence in Tujunga, a suburb in the northeast corner of the city. A neighbor described the scene to the Post:
"It was crazy seeing what happened. I saw three LAPD patrol cars and one or two from ICE."
Hosseiny was reportedly arrested while driving with her boyfriend near her home in Hollywood.
The administration's broader posture on immigration enforcement has been tested repeatedly in the courts. A recent Eighth Circuit ruling backed the administration's authority to detain illegal immigrants without bond, reinforcing the legal foundation for aggressive federal custody actions.
Rubio announced the action on X. He framed the move as both a specific enforcement decision and a broader policy statement.
"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. The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes."
On X, Fox News reported that Rubio also wrote that Afshar "is an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the 'Great Satan.'"
A DHS spokesman reinforced the message with a broader warning aimed at any green card holder who might pose a threat to the country.
"It is a privilege to be granted a green card to live in the United States of America. If we have reason to believe a green card holder poses a threat to the US, the green card will be revoked."
That language, "privilege," not "right", is deliberate. And it reflects an enforcement posture that extends well beyond this single case. The administration has been pressing states that resist its immigration policies while simultaneously expanding federal authority through the courts and executive action.
The family name at the center of this case carries enormous weight. Qasem Soleimani was the commander of Iran's Quds Force and one of the most powerful military figures in the Middle East. President Trump ordered a drone strike that killed him near the Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020, near the end of his first term. Trump said Soleimani was planning attacks on American diplomats and soldiers in Iraq.
The strike reshaped Iran's power structure and became a defining moment in Trump's approach to the Islamic Republic. The Washington Times noted that officials cited Afshar's multiple trips back to Iran after receiving asylum as evidence her eligibility for legal status was no longer valid, a finding that connects directly to the broader tension between the Trump administration and Tehran.
That Soleimani's own relatives were living in the United States on green cards while one of them allegedly praised the regime and the IRGC is a fact that speaks for itself. It raises hard questions about the vetting process that granted them asylum and legal permanent residency in the first place.
The Afshar-Hosseiny case is not an isolated action. It is the second removal of its kind this week. In a separate case, a physician and faculty member at Emory University in Atlanta and her husband were ordered to leave the United States and barred from ever returning. That case followed protests in January over allegations that "the daughter of a terrorist" was working in the school's cancer research hospital.
Afshar's husband has also been barred from entering the United States, authorities said.
National Review noted that the legal basis for deporting lawful permanent residents could face court challenges, a reminder that the administration's enforcement posture will likely be tested in the judiciary. But the political message is already delivered: the era of looking the other way while regime supporters exploit American generosity is over.
The administration has also been restructuring federal law enforcement internally, a parallel effort to align agencies with the president's enforcement priorities.
Several questions remain open. The specific legal mechanism used to terminate the women's status has not been publicly detailed. No criminal charges have been announced. The identity of the judge who granted asylum in 2019 has not been disclosed. And it is unclear what evidence beyond social media posts the government has compiled to support the propaganda allegations.
The deletion of Afshar's and Hosseiny's Instagram accounts before the arrests also raises questions about whether they had advance warning or were simply scrubbing their digital footprint as the political environment shifted.
Courts have been generally receptive to the administration's immigration enforcement authority, but green card revocations occupy a different legal space than deportations of illegal immigrants. How the judiciary handles this case could set a precedent.
The deeper issue here is not whether the Trump administration acted aggressively. It is how a woman with direct family ties to one of America's most dangerous adversaries, a woman who, officials say, openly cheered attacks on U.S. troops and praised a designated terrorist organization, was granted asylum, handed a green card, and allowed to live freely in Los Angeles for years.
The system that let that happen is the system that deserves scrutiny. Rubio and DHS are cleaning up a mess they did not make.
When the niece of a man who plotted to kill Americans can live on a green card while praising the regime he served, the immigration system has not just failed, it has been played.
