Overview
- The State Department said Saturday it ended lawful permanent residency for Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son, and ICE detained the family in Los Angeles pending removal.
- Officials identified Hashemi as the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage-crisis spokeswoman the department described as a leading propagandist who staged upbeat interviews while hostages suffered abuse.
- The family entered the United States in 2014 and received green cards in June 2016 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which the administration stopped issuing new visas for in December 2025.
- The action follows recent cases targeting relatives of IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani who remain in ICE custody and the daughter of former security chief Ali Larijani and her husband, who left the U.S. and are barred from reentry.
- Hashemi and Tahmasebi taught at The Chicago School in Los Angeles, and DHS said their presence posed a threat to U.S. national security and foreign policy after months of public petitions urging reviews of such cases.