Three family members with ties to the Iranian regime have been arrested by federal agents after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards, the State Department said on Saturday.
Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pending their removal from the country.
Eissa Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, who served as the infamous spokeswoman for the Islamist militants who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
The Obama Administration granted visas to her son and his family to enter the U.S. in 2014.
In June 2016, the Obama Administration gave them lawful permanent resident status via the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
"Her family should never have been allowed to benefit from the extraordinary privilege of living in our country. America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families - and under the Trump Administration, it never will," Rubio said.
The Trump administration suspended the issuance of new diversity visas in December 2025, saying it would review screening and vetting protocols for the sake of national security and public safety.
The State Department maintained that the American hostages were actually held in solitary confinement, blindfolded, and starved, and subjected to "physical and psychological terror."
Ebtekar eventually married one of her fellow hostage-takers and worked her way up to senior roles in Iran’s revolutionary regime, eventually serving as a vice president for family and women's affairs from 2017 to 2021.
The arrests of Ebtekar's family comes after Rubio last week terminated the legal status of the niece and grandniece of deceased Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qasem Soleimani. Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are also being held by federal agents, according to the State Department.
In addition to the termination of their lawful permanent resident status, Afshar’s husband has been barred from entering the U.S.
Meanwhile, the U.S.–Israel military campaign against Iran has lasted more than five weeks, with targeted strikes on Iran's military, energy, and nuclear facilities. Ceasefire talks between the U.S. and Iran remain ongoing with Pakistan serving as mediator in the negotiations.