State Department and Marco Rubio

U.S. authorities this week revoked green cards and visas of several Iranian nationals connected to Tehran — including Hamideh Soleimani Afshar (a niece of slain general Qassem Soleimani) and her daughter, relatives of 1979 hostage-crisis spokeswoman Masoumeh Ebtekar (Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi and their son), and Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani and her husband — and have arrested some in Los Angeles, placing them in ICE custody pending removal. The State Department and DHS say the individuals publicly supported the Iranian regime, allege Afshar's 2019 asylum grant was fraudulent after repeated trips to Iran, and point to internal USCIS vetting failures and recent visa actions against Iranian diplomats as background for the moves.