Iranian academic writes of US detention 'hell' over link to 1979 hostage crisis
The immigration status of Maryam Tahmasebi was revoked because her husband is the son of a prominent figure in Iran.
An Iranian academic, Maryam Tahmasebi, has described her detention in Texas as "hell," accusing the U.S. government of "bloodline punishment" after her family's green cards were revoked due to her husband's connection to a prominent Iranian figure.
Tahmasebi, a psychology and statistics professor in Los Angeles, her husband, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, and their teenage son—all permanent U.S. residents—were apprehended by immigration agents in April. The State Department cited the fact that Hashemi's mother was a spokesperson for the group that held dozens of Americans captive during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis as the reason for revoking the family's status.
Tahmasebi and her son remain at a detention center in Dilley, Texas, while her husband is in "horrible conditions" at a separate South Texas Detention Facility in Pearsall, she detailed in *The Nation* magazine. "We have been put through hell for the past four months, and our physical and mental health have deteriorated in ways that might not be reversible for years," Tahmasebi wrote. Her account was written from within the detention facility, with limited email access, and then submitted to the magazine by her and her lawyer, according to Jack Mirkinson, a senior editor at *The Nation*.
Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, known as "Screaming Mary" or "Sister Mary" for her English-language statements on behalf of the students who occupied the U.S. embassy in Iran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Ebtekar later held several Iranian government positions, most recently as vice president for women and family affairs, a role she left in 2021.
"The government had decided to punish my husband for being the son of a woman who was a translator for the Iranian hostage takers in 1979, before Eissa was even born," Tahmasebi stated. "I came here because I wanted to build a life for myself and my family that was defined by my own actions, not anyone else's. But now our lives are being upended for something someone else did nearly 50 years ago."
The U.S. decision to revoke the family's status aligns with several enforcement actions against relatives of Iranian regime officials, as U.S. hostilities with Iran intensified this year. Concurrently, during Iran's crackdown on protesters months ago, some diaspora activists identified relatives of Iranian officials abroad and advocated for the revocation of their legal status.
An online petition in January 2026 called for Hashemi's deportation due to his mother's involvement in the hostage crisis. In April, a few conservative U.S. outlets reported from outside Hashemi's U.S. residence. Less than a week later, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the revocation of the family's status. Rubio's announcement did not specify any wrongdoing or national security threat posed by Hashemi or Tahmasebi themselves.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott stated that the agency "does not divulge protected, sensitive, or classified information pertaining to the termination of legal status of foreign nationals." He added that the government reserves the right to terminate the legal status of foreign nationals who "pose a threat to the national security interests of the US."
Maria Kari, a member of Tahmasebi-Hashemi's legal team, informed the BBC that the State Department "has not charged this family under any national security provision of the immigration laws." Kari asserted, "If the government had any evidence that this family threatened national security, it has had several opportunities to say so but the government has not. In fact, no US government agency has presented any evidence to support their allegations."
Before their arrest, Tahmasebi and Hashemi lived in Los Angeles and worked in academia. They entered the U.S. legally in 2014 on visas and became lawful permanent residents in 2016. A federal judge temporarily blocked their deportation after lawyers challenged the family's detention and sought their release.
In her essay for *The Nation*, Tahmasebi wrote that her family attempted to self-deport—a voluntary decision to leave a country—but the U.S. government opposed their request. "In other words, they want to continue our indefinite detention without any end in sight," she wrote.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the family's request for voluntary departure in July, according to records provided by Tahmasebi's lawyers. A government attorney wrote that DHS would consider a stipulated removal, where a noncitizen waives their right to a hearing before entering deportation proceedings. When asked to comment on the family's request, a DHS spokesperson directed the BBC to its app-based voluntary departure program as a means for non-citizens to leave the country. "Being in detention is a choice," the DHS statement said. "We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App."
The U.S. government has also terminated the legal status of two Iranian women initially identified as the niece and grandniece of IRGC Major General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. strike in 2020. Soleimani's family later denied the relation, and subsequent reports have questioned the U.S. government's claim. The State Department also revoked the status of the daughter of former Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, Ali Larijani.
Roja Assadi contributed to this report.