However, that doesn’t matter. If US intelligence can track Iran’s leaders inside their own country, then they should be able to identify where their family members live inside the US.
By Kelly SADLER
Last week, the niece and great-niece of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] Major General Qassem Soleimani – now deceased terrorist – were arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, after they were allegedly living a life of luxury in the US while promoting Islamist terrorism around the world.
While calling America the “Great Satan,” Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her daughter Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, posted photos on Instagram (now deleted posts) showing them traveling around the US: partying in Miami, vacationing in Alaska, frequenting nightclubs in Las Vegas, and drinking champagne in front of a helicopter in an unidentified desert location.
In most of their posts, they appeared dressed in luxurious clothes from famous designers, in bikinis, crop tops, miniskirts and high Christian Louboutin heels, while carrying Louis Vuitton bags, with their dark hair flowing freely, unconstrained by their hijab.
In Iran, if women do not properly cover their heads with a hijab, they are thrown acid in their faces, beaten by the morality police, arrested, and blacklisted.
“Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living in luxury in the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday of their arrest. “This week, I terminated the lawful status of both Afshar and her daughter, and they are now in the custody of ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], awaiting removal from the United States. The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a haven for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.”
It is concerning that Ms. Afshar and Ms. Hosseiny were initially allowed to live in the US, given their connection to Soleimani and their open support for the IRGC.
Ms. Afshar entered the US in 2015 on a tourist visa and was granted asylum in 2019. She received her green card in 2021, a year after her uncle was killed in a drone strike ordered by President Trump during his first administration.
Last year, while applying for US citizenship, Ms. Afshar admitted that she had visited Iran four times since receiving her green card, a statement that undermined her initial claim for asylum. Ms. Hosseiny came to the US with her mother in 2015 on a student visa, received asylum in 2019 and won her green card in 2023.
While in the United States, Ms. Afshar “promoted Iranian regime propaganda, praised attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised Iran’s new supreme leader, denounced America as the ‘Great Satan,’ and expressed unwavering support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization,” the State Department alleged after revoking her and her daughter’s status.
In 2022, IRGC General Morteza Mirian, commander of ground operations, stated that four thousand relatives of IRGC “senior officials” live in the US, Canada and Europe. In 2019, Brian Hook, special representative for Iran during Mr. Trump’s administration, told Iran International that “the children of Islamic Republic officials lead rich and comfortable lives in the US and other countries, while the Iranian people live in terrible conditions.” Mr. Hook said this showed “the hypocrisy of the regime.”
This also points to weaknesses in the West’s immigration systems, which Iran has systematically taken advantage of over the years.
“When we talk about the presence of agents of the Islamic Republic, especially the IRGC, we have to understand that this is not a coincidence. It operates in layers,” Mehdi Ghadimi — an Iranian journalist in exile — told Fox News Digital last month. “They come as students or professors, but many of them have previous ties to the IRGC, and part of their role is to normalize the Islamic Republic in universities and gather information on activists.”
Last month, the New York Post reported that the children of the Iranian regime’s elite are “at prestigious universities across the U.S., including the University of Massachusetts, Union College of New York and George Washington University.”
Mr. Rubio’s State Department appears to be paying attention to this issue.
In March, the department terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of Ali Larijani, the former secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Ms. Larijani was a physician and taught at Emory University in Atlanta before the university severed ties with her in January under pressure from dissidents.
In addition to Ms. Larijani, the Post identified five other members of high-ranking IRGC families who work at prestigious universities across the United States.
“I would think there is a security risk, as Iranian scholars have been instrumental in shaping public opinion on the left in the US, essentially tricking liberals into thinking the regime is more progressive, while it continues to pursue the same hardline agenda,” Janatan Sayeh, an Iran analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, told the Post.
He added: “Many of them are nephews and nieces, and it is difficult to trace them because they do not have the same surname as the regime leaders.”
However, that doesn’t matter. If US intelligence can track Iran’s leaders inside their own country, then they should be able to identify where their family members live inside the US.
Then, they should all be deported back to Iran. No one who calls the US the “Great Satan” and protects the IRGC should be allowed to live and prosper in America. (The Washington Times)