LOS ANGELES (TNND) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained two relatives of a slain Iranian military commander in Los Angeles after he revoked their legal residency.
Rubio on Saturday said Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were taken into custody, 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.”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.
In a news release, the State Department said Afshar and her daughter had been living in Southern California prior to their detention, also noting that Afshar’s husband has been barred from entering the country.
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.
“The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” Rubio said.
The news comes as the Trump administration targets individuals it says are aligned with adversarial governments, particularly Iran, as well as amid the ongoing military conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
Qassem Soleimani, a top commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Baghdad airport in 2020.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The Associated Press contributed to this report.