Latest news with #ArthuSahakyan
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
MAGA supporter arrested by ICE detention issues statement about Trump
An Iranian native who was arrested by ICE agents from her California home and locked up in a detention center is still an avid Donald Trump supporter - saying the president is 'doing the right thing.' Arpineh Masihi, 39, who moved from Iran to America when she was two years old, was taken into custody on the morning of June 30. When federal agents arrived at her house in Diamond Bar, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, the mother-of-four calmly walked back inside to say goodbye to her four kids - unsure of the next time she'd be able to see them. Before her detainment, her husband, Arthu Sahakyan, received a chilling phone call from an anonymous number, alerting him ICE officials were going to arrest his wife. But he thought it was some kind of cruel but empty threat, like the ones his family often gets for having a large MAGA flag waving in front of their home. Masihi and Sahakyan have been proud Trump proponents, and Masihi being unexpectedly ripped away from her loved ones has not changed that, the couple said. 'I vote Trump all the way. I'll never take it back. He did the right thing,' Masihi told The Orange County Register over the phone from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Victorville. 'He's doing the right thing. I would never take it back. And a lot of people hate me in here for that.' Inside the ICE facility, Masihi described her company as 'all from the border' and non-English speaking. She was first placed in another center in downtown LA, which she said was 'the worst facility in the world,' as she had no blankets and could not shower. Masihi, who is of Armenian descent, fled Iran as a refugee with her family in the late 1980s. They all made their way to California, where she has lived ever since. She had a Green Card - but in 2008, she was convicted of burglary and served two years in prison, the Department of Homeland Security told The Orange County Register. As a result of the crime - which both she and Sahakyan claimed was a petty incident involving less than $200 in check fraud - she had the document revoked. 'She made mistakes, but we all make mistakes,' Sahakyan told the outlet. The DHS said she was ordered to leave the US in 2009, but she never did. 'She had more than 15 years to self-deport and leave the US,' the agency wrote in a statement. Acknowledging she made 'mistakes' in the past, Masihi said she also 'blames the Democrats' for her unfavorable situation. 'It's mine [the mistake], but I blame the Democrats for allowing people in, because Trump would never have done this,' she told the outlet. While remaining in the country, she and her husband have been tirelessly trying to get her citizenship back. 'She just went in [for an immigration check-in] in April,' Sahakyan told Fox 11 . 'They said you're fine. Have a good day. See you back in September or October.' Terrified for her future, the family said they have found a lawyer and are hoping to resolve the matter soon in court. Masihi's arrest comes as Southern California has been subjected to sweeping ICE raids amid Trump's immigration crackdown. Adding to the mix, the US recently bombed three nuclear sites in Iran - raising concerns about sleeper cells.
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Iranian MAGA supporter thrown into ICE detention makes jaw-dropping statement about Trump
An Iranian native who was arrested by ICE agents from her California home and locked up in a detention center is still an avid Donald Trump supporter - saying the president is 'doing the right thing.' Arpineh Masihi, 39, who moved from Iran to America when she was two years old, was taken into custody on the morning of June 30. When federal agents arrived at her house in Diamond Bar, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, the mother-of-four calmly walked back inside to say goodbye to her four kids - unsure of the next time she'd be able to see them. Before her detainment, her husband, Arthu Sahakyan, received a chilling phone call from an anonymous number, alerting him ICE officials were going to arrest his wife. But he thought it was some kind of cruel but empty threat, like the ones his family often gets for having a large MAGA flag waving in front of their home. Masihi and Sahakyan have been proud Trump proponents, and Masihi being unexpectedly ripped away from her loved ones has not changed that, the couple said. 'I vote Trump all the way. I'll never take it back. He did the right thing,' Masihi told The Orange County Register over the phone from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in Victorville. 'He's doing the right thing. I would never take it back. And a lot of people hate me in here for that.' Inside the ICE facility, Masihi described her company as 'all from the border' and non-English speaking. She was first placed in another center in downtown LA, which she said was 'the worst facility in the world,' as she had no blankets and could not shower. Masihi, who is of Armenian descent, fled Iran as a refugee with her family in the late 1980s. They all made their way to California, where she has lived ever since. She had a Green Card - but in 2008, she was convicted of burglary and served two years in prison, the Department of Homeland Security told The Orange County Register. As a result of the crime - which both she and Sahakyan claimed was a petty incident involving less than $200 in check fraud - she had the document revoked. 'She made mistakes, but we all make mistakes,' Sahakyan told the outlet. The DHS said she was ordered to leave the US in 2009, but she never did. 'She had more than 15 years to self-deport and leave the US,' the agency wrote in a statement. Acknowledging she made 'mistakes' in the past, Masihi said she also 'blames the Democrats' for her unfavorable situation. 'It's mine [the mistake], but I blame the Democrats for allowing people in, because Trump would never have done this,' she told the outlet. While remaining in the country, she and her husband have been tirelessly trying to get her citizenship back. 'She just went in [for an immigration check-in] in April,' Sahakyan told Fox 11. 'They said you're fine. Have a good day. See you back in September or October.' Terrified for her future, the family said they have found a lawyer and are hoping to resolve the matter soon in court. Masihi's arrest comes as Southern California has been subjected to sweeping ICE raids amid Trump's immigration crackdown. Adding to the mix, the US recently bombed three nuclear sites in Iran - raising concerns about sleeper cells. During the last week for June - when Masihi was detained - ICE agents took about 130 Iranian nationals into custody across eight states. Federal agents arrived in front of her house in Diamond Bar (pictured), the mother-of-four calmly walked back inside to say goodbye to her four kids 'I'm very for [the United States vetting] Iranian nationals because of the sleeper cells,' Sahakyan told Fox 11. 'I think it will resolve a lot of issues because we'll know exactly who's in here for what reasons, even though I miss [my wife] dearly. 'I think we could have a faster process [where they determine] she's not a radical, or tied to the crazies, let her out.'
The Independent
03-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Husband says he will continue to back Trump despite ICE detaining his Iranian wife
Arpineh Masihi said goodbye to her husband Arthu Sahakyan and the couple's four children after federal agents swarmed their California home on Monday. Masihi, who is from Iran, was arrested and placed into removal proceedings due to immigration issues stemming from a past conviction, according to her husband. She came to the United States when she was 3 years old as a refugee, but her green card was revoked 15 years ago after she was accused of stealing something worth 'less than $200,' he said. In the days after Donald Trump's decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, escalating tensions that have threatened to spill over into a regional war with Israel, federal agents reportedly detained dozens of Iranian nationals in the United States — including Masihi. But the couple aren't giving up their support for the president. Sahakyan says a red, white and blue TRUMP 2024 flag flying outside their home will stay there. 'I'm still supporting [Trump],' he told FOX 11 in Los Angeles. 'Even though my friends say 'take the flag down, you're going through a lot.' I'm like, no. The flag stands.' Masihi attended an immigration check-in appointment in April, and agents told her 'you're fine' and 'see you back in September or October,' Sahakyan said. Home surveillance video footage from outside their home in Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County on Monday shows Masihi, speaking with several officers as she throws out her arms in exasperation before walking back inside. 'She came and kissed the kids and that was it,' Sahakyan told FOX 11. 'That was the last time we saw her.' Sahakyan insists that 'Trump is not trying to do anything bad.' 'We understand what he's doing. He wants the best for the country,' he told the outlet. 'I'm just trying to make the best of it. I don't want any families to go through this. If they are, I apologize for what they're going through because it's hard.' Masihi's case is among a wave of similar arrests across the country, from New York to Louisiana, targeting Iranians who are legally living in the United States. Mandonna 'Donna' Kashanian, an Iranian woman who has lived in the United States for 47 years, was arrested outside her New Orleans home. Kashanian, 64, was gardening outside her New Orleans home when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrived and swiftly handcuffed her, according to her family. She arrived in the United States in 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum, fearing retaliation for her father's support of the U.S.-backed shah Mohammad Reza. She is married to a U.S. citizen and the couple have a U.S. citizen daughter. Kashanian lost that case but was allowed to remain in the country with her family on the condition that she regularly check in with immigration officers She is now detained inside ICE's South Louisiana Immigration Center, roughly three hours from New Orleans. Trump's Department of Homeland Security 'has engaged in racial profiling and indiscriminate mass arrests of Iranians across the country, all under the guise of 'national security,'' according to National Iranian American Council president Jamal Abdi. More than 130 Iranian nationals have been detained within the days after U.S. airstrikes, with 670 Iranians in ICE custody nationwide, according to Fox News. 'As with all broad and racially motivated enforcement actions, everyday people suffer the most,' Abdi added. 'Like many Iranian Americans, those arrested often came to the U.S. in search of opportunity and freedom from an authoritarian government,' he said. 'Now, their mere identity now appears to be grounds for arrest in the so-called 'land of the free.'' Sahakyan told FOX 11 that he supports immigration agents vetting Iranian nationals for so-called 'sleeper cells.' 'I think it will resolve a lot of issues because we'll know exactly who's in here for what reasons, even though I miss [my wife] dearly,' he said. 'I think we could have a faster process [where they determine] she's not a radical, or tied to the crazies, let her out.' The Trump administration has thus far detained an average of roughly 20,000 immigrants each month, three times as many under the same point in 2024. The president's mass deportation agenda has also set More than 56,000 people are currently held in immigrant detention centers across the country, according to a Syracuse University database. Internal government data obtained by CBS News suggests an even higher figure, with roughly 59,000 immigrants behind bars — or 140 percent of the agency's ostensible capacity to hold them. Among those in detention now, 47 percent have no criminal record whatsoever, and fewer than 30 percent have been convicted of crimes, according to analysis from The Independent.
