Federal agents this week arrested three Iranian nationals after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their lawful permanent resident status, according to a State Department press release issued Saturday.
The individuals, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son, are now in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody pending removal proceedings.
The State Department said Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, a former senior Iranian official who served as a spokeswoman during the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis.
The administration also cited additional recent actions, including the termination of legal status for relatives of former Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani and other individuals linked to senior Iranian officials.
Some of those individuals have already left the United States and are barred from reentry, the statement said.
The three family members originally entered the U.S. on visas in 2014 and were granted permanent residency in 2016 through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, which the Trump administration has since suspended.
In its statement, the State Department said the actions reflect ongoing coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and ICE and are aimed at “keeping Americans safe.”
The arrests are part of a broader Trump administration policy emphasizing aggressive immigration enforcement tied to national security concerns.
Officials have increasingly focused on revoking visas and residency for individuals deemed to have connections, familial or otherwise, to governments or groups considered hostile to the United States, including Iran’s ruling establishment and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Critics of such policies have previously raised concerns about due process and the scope of guilt-by-association, while supporters argue the measures are necessary to prevent potential security risks.
The administration has also moved to curtail programs like the diversity visa lottery and expand executive authority to deny or rescind immigration benefits on national security grounds.
The latest actions underscore a continued effort to align immigration enforcement with foreign policy objectives, particularly amid longstanding tensions between Washington and Tehran.