Federal agents arrested two relatives of slain Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani at their Los Angeles residence Friday after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards, the State Department announced Saturday. Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, identified as Soleimani's niece, and her daughter are now in ICE custody pending removal from the United States.
The action marks the second time this month the Trump administration has stripped legal residency from individuals the government links to Iran's ruling apparatus. It also raises a pointed question that previous administrations never bothered to answer: How did the niece of one of America's most dangerous foreign adversaries obtain asylum, a green card, and nearly reach citizenship while living lavishly in Los Angeles?
Rubio laid out the case on X. He wrote that Afshar "is the niece of deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani" and called her "an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the 'Great Satan.'"
"This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter's legal status and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States."
The Department of Homeland Security filled in the immigration timeline. Afshar entered the country on a tourist visa in June 2015. Her daughter arrived the following month on a student visa. Both were granted asylum in 2019. Afshar became a lawful permanent resident in 2021, under the Biden administration, and her daughter received a green card in 2023.
In July 2025, Afshar filed a naturalization application. That filing, Fox News Digital reported, contained a disclosure that proved damaging: Afshar admitted she had traveled to Iran at least four times since receiving her green card.
A DHS spokesperson said those trips "illustrate her asylum claims were fraudulent." The logic is straightforward. Asylum is granted to people who face persecution in their home country. A person who returns to that country repeatedly, at least four times, undercuts the very premise of the protection she was given.
The State Department went further, describing Afshar's conduct while living in the United States. Officials said she promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praised Iran's new Supreme Leader, denounced America as the "Great Satan," and voiced support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated terrorist organization.
"[Afshar] pushed this propaganda for Iran's terrorist regime while enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles, as attested to by her frequent posting on her recently deleted Instagram account."
The deleted Instagram account is a telling detail. It suggests Afshar's public support for the regime was documented in real time, and that someone tried to scrub the evidence once federal scrutiny arrived.
Afshar and her daughter are not the only targets. The State Department earlier this month terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, identified as the daughter of a former senior Iranian official, along with her husband. Both are no longer in the United States and have been barred from reentry. Afshar's husband has also been barred from entering the country, DHS confirmed.
The Washington Times reported that the State Department cited Afshar's social media activity and her repeated trips to Iran as central to the determination that her immigration claims were fraudulent. DHS said ICE officers arrested Afshar and her daughter Friday night in Los Angeles.
A DHS spokesperson framed the broader principle plainly:
"It is a privilege to be granted a green card to live in the United States of America. If we have reason to believe a green card holder poses a threat to the U.S., the green card will be revoked."
That statement reflects a shift in posture. For years, the immigration system processed applications from individuals with ties to hostile foreign governments without apparent scrutiny of whether their claims held up under basic logic. Afshar's case is a textbook example. She claimed persecution. She got asylum. She got a green card. She flew back to Iran four times. She applied for citizenship. And no one flagged the contradiction until this administration looked.
Qasem Soleimani led Iran's Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was responsible for directing proxy warfare across the Middle East, including operations that killed and maimed American service members. A U.S. airstrike in Baghdad killed Soleimani in January 2020 during President Donald Trump's first term in office.
Soleimani's death was one of the most consequential military decisions of the Trump presidency. That his niece was simultaneously building a life in Los Angeles, on a tourist visa that turned into asylum, then a green card, then a naturalization application, captures something about the gap between America's foreign policy abroad and its immigration enforcement at home.
The State Department's announcement Saturday made the administration's position explicit. Newsmax reported that the action was described as part of a broader Trump administration effort targeting foreign nationals tied to Iran's regime.
"The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes."
Several details remain unclear. The daughter's name has not been publicly released. The exact legal mechanism used to revoke the green cards, whether through formal removal proceedings or an administrative revocation, has not been specified. No court docket has been identified. And the specific evidence cited from Afshar's social media, beyond the State Department's summary, has not been made public.
It is also worth noting what is not in dispute. No one has denied that Afshar is Soleimani's niece. No one has denied she traveled to Iran multiple times after receiving asylum. No one has denied the social media posts the State Department described, and the deletion of her Instagram account speaks for itself.
Rubio has been expanding his role across multiple fronts. He recently took the stand in a federal trial involving a former congressman charged with secret Venezuelan lobbying, underscoring the breadth of his engagement on foreign influence matters.
Breitbart noted that Rubio described Afshar and her daughter as having been "living lavishly in the United States" before the revocation. The State Department's reference to her "recently deleted Instagram account" and her lifestyle in Los Angeles reinforced that characterization.
The broader pattern of State Department actions under Rubio's leadership, from diplomatic evacuations to immigration enforcement, suggests a secretary of state willing to use every available tool when national security interests intersect with immigration status.
The arrest of Soleimani's relatives is a corrective. But the deeper problem is that the corrective was necessary at all. A woman with direct family ties to one of America's most lethal foreign enemies entered on a tourist visa, claimed asylum, received a green card, traveled back to the country she supposedly fled, promoted the regime she supposedly feared, and was on her way to full citizenship.
Every step of that process involved a decision by a federal employee or an immigration judge. Every step was a failure to ask the obvious question. The Trump administration asked it. The answer led to an ICE arrest in Los Angeles.
The system that let Soleimani's niece nearly become an American citizen while she cheered attacks on American troops did not break on its own. Someone built it that way, and someone else finally decided to fix it.
