Professor and Family Describe Four Months of ICE Detention and Family Separation

Maryam Tahmasebi, a professor at Los Angeles Pierce College, describes how she, her husband Eissa Hashemi and their high-school son were abruptly detained by ICE in April, despite being legal permanent residents with clean records. An alleged online smear campaign prompted the government to move to revoke their green cards, citing the husband’s maternal link to a translator for the 1979 Iranian hostage-takers. After a brief phone call from her husband in an LA ICE center, Tahmasebi and her son were seized, handcuffed and shipped overnight to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas, where they have spent more than 120 days.

Her husband is held at the South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall, and requests to reunite the family have been denied under a “family separation is the policy” rule. The detainees endure severe physical and mental strain, limited supervised contact, and have been denied the ability to leave the United States even when they sought voluntary departure.