NEW: Rubio Revokes Authorized Standing From Relations Of Infamous Iranian Regime Determine
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Saturday that the U.S. had terminated the lawful permanent resident (LPR) status of three Iranian nationals connected to Masoumeh Ebtekar, a former Iranian propaganda mouthpiece who served as primarily spokeswoman for the militants who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.
Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son were arrested by federal agents this week and are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pending removal from the United States, the State Department announced in a press release.
Ebtekar, also known as “Screaming Mary,” acted as the lead propagandist and media intermediary for the group that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. She arranged staged interviews in which hostages were pressured to describe their treatment positively while they were subjected to solitary confinement, blindfolds, starvation, beatings, and mock executions.
Ebtekar later married one of the hostage-takers and held senior positions in Iran’s government, including vice president from 2017 to 2021.
Hashemi is Ebtekar’s son. According to the State Department, Hashemi, Tahmasebi, and their son entered the United States in 2014 on visas issued during the Obama administration.
In June 2016, they received LPR status through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, an action that occurred months after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized two U.S. Navy vessels and detained 10 American sailors. The Trump administration has since suspended the issuance of new diversity visas.
Masoumeh Ebtekar appears in an anti-U.S. propaganda video in 1979
“This week, I terminated their lawful permanent resident status and today, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son are now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pending their removal from our country,” Secretary Rubio announced in an X post.
“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.”
The announcement comes after Rubio took similar steps against relatives of other notorious Iranian regime officials earlier this month.
On April 4, the secretary terminated the LPR status of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, niece of the late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Major General Qasem Soleimani, and her daughter. Both were arrested by federal agents and placed in ICE custody pending removal. Afshar’s husband was also barred from entering the United States.
Separately, Rubio terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of former Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Neither remains in the United States and both are barred from future entry.