“Are We At Risk?” Wave of ICE Arrests Strikes Fear in Iranian Communities

The brief war between Israel Iran and the United States appears to be over for now But for countless Iranian immigrants to the United States a new period of uncertainty is just beginning A wave of detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sparked fear in Iranian communities across the country amid heightened international tensions spurred by President Trump s decision to join Israel s bombardment of Iran Among those not long ago detained are avowed foes of the current Iranian cabinet including Christian asylum-seekers former protesters who fled repression and aging immigrants who have called the U S their home for over years according to news reports immigration advocates and attorneys who spoke with The Intercept What ICE has done is essentially look at the geopolitical situation and say Okay we need to go after Iranians More than Iranian nationals have been arrested or detained in the three weeks since Israel launched its -day war with Iran on June The Trump Administration has justified this sudden surge by invoking fears of sleeper cells plotting attacks on behalf of the Islamic Republic according to reporting by Fox News We re seeing Iranians with varying immigration statuses including green cards being detained across the country revealed Murad Awawdeh president of the New York Immigration Coalition They re targeting folks who have followed the process who have done what the cabinet explained them to do in navigating the immigration system In the three-year period between October and November ICE arrested just Iranian nationals according to the largest part latest available statistics According to Fox News the total number of Iranians in ICE custody stood at late last month including the new detainees Multiple advocates and attorneys who spoke with The Intercept stated they expect that number has only increased in the past week ICE did not respond to a request for comment nor to a question about the number of Iranians at present in ruling body detention The Department of Homeland Measure last week trumpeted the arrest of Iranian nationals whose only unifying factor was their shared national heritage Specific had criminal charges decades old in specific cases and others had irregularities in their immigration status that ICE claimed made them eligible for deportation DHS claimed one of the detainees admitted having ties to Hezbollah but the department did not elaborate on what those ties entailed The wave of arrests came as first Israel and later the United States carried out airstrikes on military and scientific targets linked to Iran s nuclear initiative Israel also carried out targeted assassination strikes and car bombings in dense residential neighborhoods across Iran over the subject of the conflict Iran retaliated with ballistic missile attacks on Israel Though Fox News noted that the administration was conducting the raids in hopes of disrupting sleeper cells there has been no evidence to back up those proposes There was no indication from DHS and ICE that any of the detainees were picked up due to any actual intelligence on plots against the United States What ICE has done is essentially look at the geopolitical situation and say Okay we need to go after Iranians explained Ryan Costello framework director of the National Iranian American Council And how they re doing that is essentially sorting by national origin and then looking for cases of individuals where there s various uncertainty on their status Read Our Complete Coverage The War on Immigrants It s basically The national heritage of Iranians means you re guilty of something and we ll figure out what that is later Costello commented The detentions have kindled fear among Iranian immigrants and Iranian Americans that they could be next according to Curtis Morrison an attorney in California who works extensively with Iranian clients Speaking with The Intercept on Tuesday afternoon Morrison announced he had just moments ago gotten off the phone with an Iranian client calling in a panic despite having been granted asylum He s asking Are we at peril And I was like Yes Morrison declared It s a really awkward conversation to have A number of the people just now detained by ICE had previously been published by ICE after passing a so-called credible fear interview a stage in the asylum application process in which immigration officials assess the basis for a claim according to Jonathan Aftalion an attorney based in Los Angeles Aftalion mentioned he has at least one client now in detention who fears for his life if the Trump administration makes good on its intention to deport him back to Iran This is a guy who is about to be sent back to a regime that is in turmoil and he is very clearly a political dissident Aftalion noted If you re clearly a political dissident and the Iranian establishment has knowledge of that this is a very harsh regime and you re essentially going back to your death During the Biden administration approximately Iranian nationals were taken into immigration custody then published according to Trump perimeter czar Tom Homan Numerous of those people could now face deportation Now that Trump is ramping up attempts to send deportees to countries other than their nation of origin their feasible destinations are uncertain While the timing of the fresh uptick in detentions coincides with U S tensions with Tehran it comes after of years during which the U S cabinet placed additional burdens on Iranians hoping to immigrate to the United States according to Aftalion Under the first Trump administration and during the later part of the Biden administration Iranians had to jump through extra hoops to enter the United States or to prove their credible-fear alleges Aftalion stated There has been a lot that the Iranian neighborhood has had to go through and it didn t just start with Trump and the tensions between Israel Iran and the U S Aftalion announced Iranians have not been getting a fair shake for years now and it s just been amplified at this time For numerous however that amplification has been sudden and severe In Louisiana masked ICE agents arrived on the doorstep of Mandonna Donna Kashanian and took her into custody Kashanian came to the United States in and despite losing an asylum claim was given a stay of removal She has lived here ever since and checked in regularly with immigration executives and she has a spouse and a daughter who are both U S citizens In Los Angeles ICE called a family of Christian asylum-seekers in for a meeting then took them into custody and transferred them to a detention center in Texas ICE records show The family s lawyer Kaveh Aradalan advised NBC that he has another five clients seeking asylum who have been detained in recent times And in Buffalo unidentified agents have been camping out near the home of an Iranian dissident prompting neighbors to organize to protect the man against deportation according to a statement in the Investigative Post a local news site Speaking with the Investigative Post the dissident who was not named declared he feared being sent back to Iran after fleeing in the wake of protests that broke out in after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini a Kurdish woman arrested for failing to wear hijab These are people who are seeking safety here announced Awawdeh of the New York Immigration Coalition The Trump administration and ICE personnel are creating a stereotype and then weaponizing that stereotype and then targeting people because of that The post Are We At Menace Wave of ICE Arrests Strikes Fear in Iranian Communities appeared first on The Intercept