US authorities named the woman as Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and said her daughter was detained with her late on Friday. The State Department said Afshar had been living in Los Angeles and accused her of supporting the Iranian government while benefiting from residence in the United States. Rubio also barred her husband from entering the country, according to the official US account of the case.
The arrests give a sharper edge to a policy that has combined immigration enforcement with the administration’s hardening posture towards Iran during a period of open military confrontation. Washington has also revoked visas or residency protections for other Iranians linked to senior political or security figures, including Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani and her husband, officials said. The administration argues that the United States should not host foreign nationals who publicly support governments or organisations it considers hostile.
At the centre of the story is Qassem Soleimani, the late commander of the Quds Force, the external operations arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He was killed in a US air strike near Baghdad airport in January 2020 during Donald Trump’s first term, an assassination that reshaped the regional security landscape and deepened the long-running confrontation between Washington and Tehran. Soleimani had long been viewed in Iran as a powerful military strategist and by the United States as a key architect of proxy operations across the Middle East.
Still, an important point of dispute has emerged over the family connection itself. Reuters reported that Iranian news agencies carried comments from Soleimani’s daughter, Narjes Soleimani, saying the commander’s family and relatives had never lived in the United States and that he had two nephews, not nieces. That denial does not alter the fact of the arrests as described by US officials, but it does introduce a note of caution over the exact kinship claim at the heart of Washington’s public framing.
The administration’s public case rests not only on family links but on conduct. US officials said Afshar had promoted Iranian regime propaganda, praised attacks against American soldiers and used language hostile to the United States. AP reported that Rubio described her as an outspoken supporter of Tehran who referred to America as the “Great Satan”. Those allegations, while politically potent, are also likely to draw scrutiny from civil liberties advocates who have already raised concerns about due process, evidentiary standards and the boundary between protected speech and grounds for removal.
That tension is becoming more pronounced as immigration law is used in cases carrying diplomatic and ideological overtones. Supporters of the administration’s line argue that lawful permanent residence is a privilege that can be withdrawn when an individual is deemed to support hostile state interests. Critics counter that public denunciation by senior officials before any full adjudication risks politicising immigration enforcement and narrowing space for legal challenge. Reuters noted that many detainees held by ICE in other cases have later been released following court orders, underscoring the role the judiciary may yet play.
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