Wife of Iranian illegal immigrant allegedly threatened to shoot ICE agents in the head when they came to arrest husband
Linet Vartanians, 37, is accused of telling the feds she had a loaded gun and would shoot anyone who tried to enter the couple's home in Tempe, according to the US Attorney's Office.
She also allegedly threatened to shoot ICE officers in the head who were outside of the home on Saturday.
Advertisement
Linet Vartanians allegedly threatened to shoot ICE agents when they came to her and her husband's Arizona home trying to arrest her husband.
DHS
Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand and his wife were federally indicted Tuesday.
ICE / SWNS
Both Vartanians and her illegal immigrant husband, Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, 40, were federally indicted Tuesday, according to the US Attorney's office.
Eidivand has had a deportation order since 2013, but never left the country.
Advertisement
When ICE officers showed up at the couple's home, they encountered Vartanians, who refused to open the door and told them to come back with a warrant before she called local cops on them, according to the US Attorney.
Hed: Wife of Iranian illegal immigrant accused of threatening to shoot ICE agents in the head when they came to arrest her husband
A police dispatcher who spoke with Eidivand said the illegal immigrant shared that they had three guns in the home.
Advertisement
The feds returned the next day and executed a search warrant on the home, finding a loaded gun on the kitchen counter and another on a nightstand.
Every week, Post columnist Miranda Devine sits down for exclusive and candid conversations with the most influential disruptors in Washington. Subscribe here!
The couple was arrested that day.
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to nab Iranian nationals as part of its mass deportation agenda and following US strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.
Advertisement
In the last week, ICE collared 130 Iranian illegal immigrants, including terror suspects, who were roaming the US, according to NewsNation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Don't look away from what's happening in Iran
As an Iranian-American who has lived and worked as a journalist in Iran — and who spent 100 days imprisoned there — I feel both anguish and dread watching history repeat itself. The leaders of the United States, Israel, and the Islamic Republic are jockeying over claims of victory, while human rights abuses and the everyday suffering of ordinary Iranians have started to fade, once again, from the headlines. Advertisement During the 12 days of war, more than 700 people were accused of being 'Israeli operatives' and were arrested, according to the state-affiliated Fars News Agency. Human rights groups Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Meanwhile, Iran's parliament has Advertisement It's no surprise that a regime blindsided by a foreign enemy's highly coordinated attacks would now move swiftly to root out what it sees as security threats. But the regime is not just fighting foreign adversaries. It is using the war as a pretext to crack down on domestic dissent. Having experienced firsthand the lack of due process and transparency within the Islamic Republic's judicial system, I have no doubt that many innocent people will be punished for crimes they did not commit. In 2009, after six years of living and working in Iran as a journalist, I was arrested and accused of spying for the United States. My interrogators claimed that the CIA had paid me to use a book I was writing about Iran as a cover for espionage. 'It's not possible you could be conducting so many interviews,' one insisted, 'only for a book.' Like many Iranian political prisoners, I was held in solitary confinement and subjected to grueling interrogations, unable to inform anyone of my whereabouts. The authorities threatened my loved ones, fabricated evidence, and warned that espionage could result in many years in prison, and even the death penalty. For decades the regime has accused journalists, civil society leaders, women's rights activists, lawyers, academics, environmentalists, and humanitarian workers of committing crimes against the state — sometimes under a charge of espionage. During my time in Tehran's notorious Advertisement My own sentence was eight years, but I was lucky. After an Countless others — especially those without the support of a foreign government or the attention of the international media — have not been so fortunate. The regime expends enormous resources interrogating citizens, monitoring internet activity and phone calls, pressuring people to inform on one another, and tailing them in the streets, in cars, even on flights abroad. 'If the system worked well, they would have found the real spies and prevented Israel from doing so much damage,' an Iranian friend told me. 'But instead, the regime took people like you and claimed you were spies.' Today, many of those being swept up in the regime's dragnet appear to be suffering the same fate. Detainees are being fast-tracked through unfair trials in kangaroo courts without legal representation or due process, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran. The Iranian regime is responding with repression because 'it knows it won't collapse due to foreign intervention alone,' says Rebin Rahmani, a board member of the Paris-based Advertisement This crackdown, in other words, was predictable. Afsoon Najafi, whose youngest sister, Hadis, was shot and killed by security forces during nationwide protests in 2022, told me, 'A large percentage of Iranians will again be killed by the Islamic Republic because the regime's agents are full of resentment toward Iranians. And the regime's own agents also know that we know they're scared.' Regardless of whether US and Iranian officials resume negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, the Trump administration has an opportunity to show that human rights matter, too. That means, among other things, supporting Iranians' access to information — for example, by restoring full funding to Voice of America Persian, a crucial source of uncensored news for millions in Iran. American citizens can also play a role. By calling their members of Congress and expressing support for measures like the Steps like those from the American people, even if their message isn't taken up by Congress and the current administration, would still send a clear signal to Iran: Human rights abuses will not be ignored. When I asked an artist in Tehran what she hoped the world would understand about the Iranian people now that a fragile cease-fire is in place, she said on condition of anonymity, 'I don't know what the people of the world can do, but I want them not to be indifferent to the pain we're enduring.' 'At the very least,' she added, 'let us remain in the news. Let them keep an eye on us.' Advertisement If the world fails to keep an eye on the Iranian people, we risk silently sanctioning yet another chapter of repression in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Fox News
2 hours ago
- Fox News
Texas police officer shot near ICE detention center as Trump officials promise zero tolerance
The Trump administration is taking a "zero tolerance" approach to attacks on law enforcement after a Texas police officer was shot outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center. The message came after similar incidents in other cities amid backlash against President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agency. An Alvarado, Texas, police officer was shot Friday night near the Prairieland Detention Facility, authorities said. "We are closely monitoring the attacks on DHS detention facilities in Prairieland, TX, and Portland, OR, and are coordinating with the [US Attorney offices] and our law enforcement partners," said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on X. "The Department [of Justice] has zero tolerance for assaults on federal officers or property and will bring the full weight of the law against those responsible," he added. In Alvarado, a suburb of Fort Worth, several suspects were arrested after an officer with the Alvarado Police Department was shot at around 11 p.m. while responding to reports of a suspicious person, FOX Dallas reported. When the officer tried making contact with the person, shots were fired and the officer was struck in the neck. The officer was flown to a Fort Worth hospital for treatment and was later released. Several armed suspects fled but were arrested with the help of the Johnson County Sheriff's Office and other authorities, the news station reported.
New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes first public appearance since Iran-Israel war started
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura. Khamenei's absence during the war suggested the Iranian leader, who has final say on all state matters, had been in seclusion in a bunker — something not acknowledged by state media. State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in the capital, Tehran. Advertisement 3 Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began. There was no immediate report on any public statement made. Iranian officials such as the parliament speaker were present. Such events are always held under heavy security. After the US inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, US President Donald Trump sent warnings via social media to the 86-year-old Khamenei that the US knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, 'at least for now.' Advertisement On June 26, shortly after a ceasefire began, Khamenei made his first public statement in days, saying in a prerecorded statement that Tehran had delivered a 'slap to America's face' by striking a US air base in Qatar, and warning against further attacks by the US or Israel on Iran. Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: 'Look, you're a man of great faith. A man who's highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.' Iran has acknowledged the deaths of more than 900 people in the war, as well as thousands of injured. It also has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and has denied access to them for inspectors with the UN nuclear watchdog. Advertisement 3 Khamenei attended a mourning ceremony commemorating the death anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein. Iran's president on Wednesday ordered the country to suspend its cooperation with the watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, further limiting inspectors' ability to track a program that had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels. Israel launched the war fearing that Iran was trying to develop atomic weapons. It remains unclear just how badly damaged the nuclear facilities are, whether any enriched uranium or centrifuges had been moved before the attacks, and whether Tehran still would be willing to continue negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program. Israel also targeted defense systems, high-ranking military officials and atomic scientists. Advertisement In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of them intercepted, killing 28 people and causing damage in many areas. 3 The ceremony was held in Tehran on Saturday. via REUTERS Ceremony commemorates a death that caused rift in Islam The ceremony that Khamenei hosted Saturday was a remembrance of the 7th century martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Hussein. Shiites represent over 10% of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims, and they view Hussein as the rightful successor to the Prophet Muhammad. Hussein's death in battle at the hands of Sunnis at Karbala, south of Baghdad, created a rift in Islam and continues to play a key role in shaping Shiite identity. In predominantly Shiite Iran, red flags represented Hussein's blood and black funeral tents and clothes represented mourning. Processions of chest-beating and self-flagellating men demonstrated fervor. Some sprayed water over the mourners in the intense heat. Reports of problems accessing the internet NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, reported late Saturday on X that there was a 'major disruption to internet connectivity' in Iran. It said the disruption corroborated widespread user reports of problems accessing the internet. The development comes just weeks after authorities shut down telecoms during the war. NetBlocks later said internet access had been restored after some two hours.
