Two relatives of Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian military commander who was killed in a strike ordered by President Donald Trump in 2020, have been arrested by federal agents.
Soleimani’s niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, and her daughter are now in ICE custody, the State Department announced Saturday. The department’s statement described Afshar as an “outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran.”
“Afshar Soleimani 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 State Department said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked their lawful permanent resident status, and Afshar’s husband is also barred from entering the country.
Rubio said Afshar is 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,” he wrote Saturday on X. “The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
The Iranian mission to the U.N. had no comment Saturday.
Afshar and her daughter are just the latest Iranians to have their legal status in the U.S. rescinded by Rubio.
He recently revoked the visas of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, an academic and daughter of Iran’s former national security adviser Ali Larijani, who was killed in a U.S.-Israel airstrike last month. Her husband, Seyed Kalantar Motamedi, also had his visa revoked, the State Department said.
Neither is still in the U.S.
In early December, well before the surge of anti-government protests in Iran and the start of the war, the State Department revoked or declined to renew visas of several Iranian diplomats, including the deputy ambassador, and staffers at Iran’s mission to the United Nations.
The department said Friday that action had been taken on Dec. 4 but declined to comment further "for privacy and security reasons" except to note that it was unrelated to either the protests or the war.
