Iranian academic writes of US detention 'hell' over link to 1979 hostage crisis

What the report says

An Iranian-born academic and her family are challenging the US government’s decision to revoke their immigration status after linking it to the husband’s family connection to a figure associated with Iran’s 1979 hostage crisis. According to BBC World News, Maryam Tahmasebi, a psychology and statistics professor in Los Angeles, her husband Seyed Eissa Hashemi, and their teenage son were detained by immigration agents in April after living in the United States as lawful permanent residents.

The BBC says Tahmasebi and her son are being held at a detention centre in Dilley, Texas, while Hashemi is detained separately in Pearsall. Tahmasebi wrote in The Nation that the family has endured severe strain during months in custody and described the punishment as unfair because it stems from his mother’s role decades earlier. Hashemi’s mother, Masoumeh Ebtekar, was a spokesperson for the student group that held 52 Americans hostage at the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days. She later held senior positions in the Iranian government.

The State Department has said it has the right to terminate legal status for foreign nationals who may pose a national security threat, but BBC World News reports that officials did not publicly allege wrongdoing by Tahmasebi or Hashemi personally. Their lawyers say no evidence has been presented that the family itself poses such a threat.

The case comes amid wider US scrutiny of relatives of Iranian officials, and after a federal judge temporarily blocked deportation while legal challenges continue. More broadly, it highlights how Washington’s disputes with Tehran continue to affect people with family ties to Iranian political figures, even when those relatives have long lived in the US.