By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Sunday, August 30, 2026
U.S. federal agents working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain illegal immigrants and asylum seekers reporting for immigration court proceedings at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building’s U.S. Immigration Court in New York, New York, on July 24, 2025. | DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
An Iranian Christian convert who was deported from the United States while seeking asylum has received a new home in Canada amid concerns about the safety of Iranian Christians who have faced removal from the U.S.
Artemis Ghasemzadeh has received asylum in Canada, The New York Times reports. Ghasemzadeh, a Christian convert who fled Iran, entered the U.S. illegally with her brother in December 2024 and was detained in San Diego. She was separated from her brother shortly after arriving in the U.S.
Ghasemzadeh was one of 11 Iranian Christians seeking asylum in the U.S. who were deported to Panama two months later as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to resettle illegal immigrants outside the U.S. While Panama enabled Ghasemzadeh and other Iranian Christians to remain in the country legally through most of 2025, she sought to claim asylum in Canada after lawyers advised her it was unlikely that the U.S. would let her back into the country.
Ghasemzadeh’s deportation from the U.S. sparked outcry from religious freedom advocacy groups who alleged that she did not receive a “credible fear” interview traditionally granted to asylum seekers and was denied access to counsel. As Ghasemzadeh told the persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern, conversion to Christianity is punishable by imprisonment or death in Iran.
Artemis Ghasemzadeh | International Christian Concern
Ghasemzadeh’s deportation also led to calls for policy changes in the U.S., with Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., introducing the Artemis Act. The bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the expedited removal of illegal immigrants who reside in countries designated by the U.S. State Department as a “country of particular concern” (CPC).
The legislation was co-sponsored by two other Democratic lawmakers and has not yet received a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Iran is one of the countries designated as a CPC by the State Department because it has “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.” Iran’s treatment of Christians and other prisoners of conscience has received renewed attention since the start of the war in Iran that toppled the country’s supreme leader.
The publicity given to Ghasemzadeh’s case caught the attention of a Canadian couple, Ian and Naomi Elliot, who offered to sponsor her so she could claim asylum in Canada, The Times notes. The couple had difficulty bringing Ghasemzadeh to Canada because the quota for privately sponsored refugees had been reached for 2025. After several months of prayer, the Elliots were informed by one of the refugee resettlement agencies that a spot had opened up.
The Elliots secured the required $25,000 payment from an American lawyer who had helped Ghasemzadeh’s brother receive asylum in the U.S. Ghasemzadeh arrived at her new home on Denman Island near Vancouver in early July after the Canadian government had granted her asylum a month earlier.
“I’m still kind of in shock. I can’t believe I’m really here and this is not a dream,” Ghasemzadeh told The Times in a phone interview. “I can finally say the struggle is over.”
Ghasemzadeh is not the only Iranian Christian who has faced an uncertain future after arriving in the U.S. Two Iranian Christian sisters, Mahan and Mozhan Motahari, were detained in the U.S. Virgin Islands late last year after U.S. Border Patrol agents, while conducting outbound operations at the local airport, determined that they were in the country illegally.
The Motaharis, who had been baptized after arriving in the U.S. in 2022, were released from custody earlier this year. The judge noted strong support from their church community, St. Thomas Episcopal Church in McLean, Virginia, before allowing them to remain free while their case proceeds.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com