LA family linked to Iranian Revolutionary 'propagandist' arrested by feds

Suhauna Hussain, Los Angeles Times on Apr 11, 2026

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The U.S. Department of State on Saturday announced it canceled the green cards of three more Iranian nationals and placed them in custody of federal immigration agents, noting their ties to a former Iranian politician.

The three Iranians arrested, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi and their son, were based in the Los Angeles area, and are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Their arrest comes amid an escalating immigration crackdown by the Trump administration to strip permanent lawful residency status from Iranians with alleged ties to the Islamic regime, which so far has consisted of arresting relatives of prominent Iranian figures.

Hashemi, the State Department said, is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, who gained fame in the U.S. as a spokeswoman for militants who stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 in support of the Islamic Revolution.

The State Department described her as a "leading propagandist" for "violent Islamists."

Ebtekar, after her role in the hostage crisis, went on to become a reformist politician in Iran who pushed for environmental protections and women's rights. She served as Iran's vice president from 2013 to 2021.

In a 1998 interview with The New York Times, Ebtekar distanced herself from her role during the hostage crisis, asking a reporter not to focus on it, describing her actions as part of her past and a "basic necessity" at the time.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media that the Obama administration had granted visas to Ebtekar's son and his family to enter the U.S. They received lawful permanent residency in June 2016, Rubio said.

Rubio's social media posts and the State Department's release did not note any crimes by the three individuals to warrant their arrest, only mentioning their familial ties.

"Her family should never have been allowed to benefit from the extraordinary privilege of living in our country," Rubio said in a post on X. "America can never become home for anti-American terrorists or their families — and under the Trump Administration, it never will."

The State Department announced similar arrests a week ago of two Los Angeles-based relatives of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2020.

The various arrests come after right-wing pressure campaigns.

Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer took credit for the arrest of Soleimani's relatives, writing on X that over several months she had "quietly been documenting" the social media activity of his niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar.

"I uploaded it all to a secure file and shared it with DHS and Department of State, and now she has been arrested and she will be deported from our country," Loomer wrote.

Hashemi's arrest came after a report by The California Post describing him as living a "life of luxury," calling his mother's past "sickening" and highlighting a petition on Change.org pushing for his deportation.