The women, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, were taken into custody April 3 after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated their lawful permanent resident status. A State Department statement identified them as Soleimani’s niece and grandniece and accused Afshar of supporting Iran’s government, praising the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and living a “lavish lifestyle” in Los Angeles.
But Drop Site News reported that Iranian birth records, identification documents, historical passports, family photos, a will and other personal records showed no connection between the women and Soleimani or his extended family. The outlet said the records indicated Afshar’s father had no brothers, while Qasem Soleimani was born years later in Kerman province, away from the family roots reflected in the documents.
Records deepen questions over the ICE detention claim
The government’s account traveled quickly through major news coverage. Reuters reported April 4 that U.S. agents had detained Soleimani’s alleged relatives after Rubio revoked their green cards, while also noting that Iranian state media cited an Iranian Foreign Ministry official saying the arrested Iranian national had no family ties to Soleimani. Narjes Soleimani, one of the late commander’s daughters, also denied the family link, saying his family and relatives had not lived in the United States.
CBS News reported that Afshar was being held in ICE detention at a facility in Pearsall, Texas, and that the Department of Homeland Security alleged her asylum claim was fraudulent because she traveled to Iran after receiving a green card. The same report said Hosseiny entered the United States on a student visa, received asylum in 2019 and became a green card holder in 2023.
Drop Site News also reported that Afshar has autoimmune hemolytic anemia and that friends of the family say she has not received the treatment she needs while detained. The South Texas ICE Processing Center declined to discuss her case beyond confirming custody, according to the outlet.
The case also fits into a broader legal fight over how far the government can go in using immigration status to punish alleged political alignment. Federal law says a noncitizen may be deportable if the secretary of state has reasonable grounds to believe the person’s presence or activities in the United States would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences,” according to 8 U.S.C. § 1227.
That authority has already drawn scrutiny. In 2025, a federal judge said the Trump administration’s effort to deport Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil on foreign policy grounds likely violated the Constitution, the Associated Press reported. The government had not accused Khalil of breaking any laws, instead relying on a memo from Rubio that argued his presence could harm U.S. foreign policy interests.
Older scrutiny around Iranian travelers shows continuity
The Soleimani-related claim also lands against a longer history of heightened U.S. scrutiny of Iranians after major confrontations with Tehran. Days after the U.S. drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani on Jan. 3, 2020, Vox reported that nearly 200 people of Iranian descent, including some U.S. citizens, were detained or questioned at the U.S.-Canada border about their political views, family members and work histories.
A month later, Time reported that acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said border officers in Washington state “got a little overzealous” after the Soleimani strike. In 2021, AP reported that Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Suzan DelBene demanded a formal apology and records from CBP over the detentions.
The new document review has also raised questions about how the allegation was amplified. Media Matters reported that Fox News repeatedly promoted the administration’s claim that the women were related to Soleimani but had not corrected the record after Drop Site News challenged the allegation with documents.
For now, Afshar and Hosseiny remain in immigration proceedings while the central claim used to publicly define their case faces serious doubt. If the family records are accurate, the controversy is no longer only about two green card holders accused of supporting Iran’s regime. It is also about whether an unproven family tie helped drive an ICE detention case with life-altering consequences.
