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The Intercept
04-07-2025
- Politics
- The Intercept
'Are We At Risk?' Wave of ICE Arrests Strikes Fear in Iranian Communities
The brief war between Israel, Iran, and the United States appears to be over for now. But for many Iranian immigrants to the United States, a new period of uncertainty is just beginning. A wave of detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sparked fear in Iranian communities across the country, amid heightened international tensions spurred by President Trump's decision to join Israel's bombardment of Iran. Among those recently detained are avowed foes of the current Iranian government, including Christian asylum-seekers, former protesters who fled repression, and aging immigrants who have called the U.S. their home for over 40 years, according to news reports, immigration advocates, and attorneys who spoke with The Intercept. 'What ICE has done is essentially look at the geopolitical situation and say, 'Okay, we need to go after Iranians'' More than 130 Iranian nationals have been arrested or detained in the three weeks since Israel launched its 12-day war with Iran on June 13. The Trump Administration has justified this sudden surge by invoking fears of 'sleeper cells' plotting attacks on behalf of the Islamic Republic, according to reporting by Fox News. 'We're seeing Iranians with varying immigration statuses, including green cards, being detained across the country,' said Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition. 'They're targeting folks who have followed the process, who have done what the government told them to do in navigating the immigration system.' In the three-year period between October 2021 and November 2024, ICE arrested just 165 Iranian nationals, according to the most recent available statistics. According to Fox News, the total number of Iranians in ICE custody stood at 670 late last month, including the 130 new detainees. Multiple advocates and attorneys who spoke with The Intercept said they expect that number has only increased in the past week. ICE did not respond to a request for comment, nor to a question about the number of Iranians currently in government detention. The Department of Homeland Security last week trumpeted the arrest of 11 Iranian nationals whose only unifying factor was their shared national heritage. Some had criminal charges — decades old, in some cases — and others had irregularities in their immigration status that ICE claimed made them eligible for deportation. DHS claimed one of the detainees admitted having ties to Hezbollah, but the department did not elaborate on what those ties entailed. The wave of arrests came as first Israel and later the United States carried out airstrikes on military and scientific targets linked to Iran's nuclear program. Israel also carried out targeted assassination strikes and car bombings in dense residential neighborhoods across Iran over the course of the conflict. Iran retaliated with ballistic missile attacks on Israel. Though Fox News noted that the administration was conducting the raids in hopes of disrupting 'sleeper cells,' there has been no evidence to back up those claims. There was no indication from DHS and ICE that any of the detainees were picked up due to any actual intelligence on plots against the United States. 'What ICE has done is essentially look at the geopolitical situation and say, 'Okay, we need to go after Iranians,'' said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council. 'And how they're doing that is essentially sorting by national origin and then looking for cases of individuals where there's some uncertainty on their status.' Read Our Complete Coverage 'It's basically 'The national heritage of Iranians means you're guilty of something, and we'll figure out what that is later,'' Costello said. The detentions have kindled fear among Iranian immigrants and Iranian Americans that they could be next, according to Curtis Morrison, an attorney in California who works extensively with Iranian clients. Speaking with The Intercept on Tuesday afternoon, Morrison said he had just moments ago gotten off the phone with an Iranian client calling in a panic despite having been granted asylum. 'He's asking 'Are we at risk?' And I was like, 'Yes,'' Morrison said. 'It's a really awkward conversation to have.' A number of the people recently detained by ICE had previously been released by ICE after passing a so-called 'credible fear' interview, a stage in the asylum application process in which immigration authorities assess the basis for a claim, according to Jonathan Aftalion, an attorney based in Los Angeles. Aftalion said he has at least one client currently in detention who fears for his life if the Trump administration makes good on its intention to deport him back to Iran. 'This is a guy who is about to be sent back to a regime that is in turmoil, and he is very clearly a political dissident,' Aftalion said. 'If you're clearly a political dissident, and [the Iranian government] has knowledge of that — this is a very harsh regime, and you're essentially going back to your death.' During the Biden administration, approximately 1,200 Iranian nationals were taken into immigration custody then released, according to Trump border czar Tom Homan. Many of those people could now face deportation. Now that Trump is ramping up attempts to send deportees to countries other than their nation of origin, their possible destinations are uncertain. While the timing of the recent uptick in detentions coincides with U.S. tensions with Tehran, it comes after of years during which the U.S. government placed additional burdens on Iranians hoping to immigrate to the United States, according to Aftalion. Under the first Trump administration, and during the later part of the Biden administration, Iranians had to jump through extra hoops to enter the United States or to prove their credible-fear claims, Aftalion said. 'There has been a lot that the Iranian community has had to go through, and it didn't just start with Trump and the tensions between Israel, Iran, and the U.S.,' Aftalion said. 'Iranians have not been getting a fair shake for years now, and it's just been amplified at this time.' For many, however, that amplification has been sudden, and severe. In Louisiana, masked ICE agents arrived on the doorstep of Mandonna 'Donna' Kashanian, 64, and took her into custody. Kashanian came to the United States in 1978 and, despite losing an asylum claim, was given a stay of removal. She has lived here ever since and checked in regularly with immigration authorities, and she has a spouse and a daughter who are both U.S. citizens. In Los Angeles, ICE called a family of Christian asylum-seekers in for a meeting, then took them into custody and transferred them to a detention center in Texas, ICE records show. The family's lawyer, Kaveh Aradalan, told NBC that he has another five clients seeking asylum who have been detained recently. And in Buffalo, unidentified agents have been camping out near the home of an Iranian dissident, prompting neighbors to organize to protect the man against deportation, according to a report in the Investigative Post, a local news site. Speaking with the Investigative Post, the dissident, who was not named, said he feared being sent back to Iran after fleeing in the wake of protests that broke out in 2022 after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman arrested for failing to wear hijab. 'These are people who are seeking safety here,' said Awawdeh, of the New York Immigration Coalition. The Trump administration and ICE authorities 'are creating a stereotype, and then weaponizing that stereotype, and then targeting people because of that.'
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New York judge blocks ICE office from opening on Rikers Island
NEW YORK (PIX11) — The Supreme Court of the State of New York has issued a preliminary injunction to block New York City Mayor Eric Adams from opening an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office at Rikers Island. The ruling on Friday came after Adams previously announced that Homeland Security would work with the NYPD and the city's Department of Correction to investigate gang activity at Rikers Island. More Local News 'The State Supreme Court's ruling will effectively prevent thousands of New Yorkers a year from being deported simply because they were accused – not even convicted – of a crime,' said the President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition Murad Awawdeh. 'New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump's mass disappearance agenda, which is in fact illegal under our local laws,' the statement continued. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State ICE previously had officers on Rikers Island until 2014 when the City Council passed sanctuary laws that banned the organization from operating in NYC jails. Advocates had been hoping to block immigration officials from reestablishing an office on Rikers Island saying that the agency had been depriving defendants of due process, some of whom may be in the U.S. legally. According to court documents, judges found that reestablishing an ICE office on Rikers Island would risk 'damage to reputation, loss of goodwill, and brand tarnishment' to New York City due to its reputation as a 'Sanctuary City.' 'Moreover, the imminent threat of the loss of public trust in government institutions serves as a basis for injunctive relief,' the court document reads. The injunction makes it so that all other NYC government officials, officers, personnel and agencies are barred from creating an ICE office on Rikers until the end of the proceeding. Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Noncitizens cannot vote in New York City's local elections, state high court rules
New Yorkers vote early before November's presidential election. New York state's highest court struck down New York City's statute that would have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections. () New York state's highest court struck down a New York City statute that would have allowed 800,000 noncitizens to vote in mayoral, city council and school board elections. This month, six of the seven judges on the New York State Court of Appeals upheld an earlier ruling that found the city's statute unconstitutional, siding with the New York Republican State Committee, the Republican National Committee and others. The statute, which passed the City Council in 2021 and would have gone into effect the following year, was never implemented after it was immediately challenged in court. '[I]t is facially clear that only citizens may vote in elections within the State of New York,' wrote Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson for the majority. Proponents of allowing legal permanent residents and those in the United States on work authorization to vote solely in local elections argue that it helps integrate immigrants into American society, allowing them to vote on issues dear to them, such as their children's education or taxes. Taking that away is a 'grave injustice,' said Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, one of the groups that appealed a lower court's ruling. 'New York City needs more democracy, not less,' Awawdeh said in a statement. 'Expanding voting rights strengthens our communities, and improves our school, housing, and public services.' New York City was one of about 20 cities and towns in California, Maryland and Vermont — along with the District of Columbia — that allow noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Those laws make it clear that the vote would only be extended for local elections, noting that only U.S. citizens may vote in statewide and federal elections. In November, 60% of voters in Santa Ana, California, rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed noncitizens to vote in local elections. Last month, a Vermont Superior Court judge dismissed a conservative group's lawsuit challenging Burlington's statute allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, including those for school board. As Stateline has reported, very few noncitizens have actually participated in these local elections, many either afraid that voting would alert federal immigration officials or unaware that the statutes even existed. Those challenging the New York City statute argued that not only did the statute language violate the state constitution, but that it also would dilute the voice of the city's 5 million registered voters. The issue of noncitizens participating in American elections has become a focus of Republican efforts to add more restrictions to the voting process. The GOP-led Congress has made enacting the proposed Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act a major priority. The legislation, known as the SAVE Act, would require voters to show a birth certificate, passport or some proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. But passing the SAVE Act could disenfranchise U.S. citizens, some voting rights advocates say. Critics of the measure point out that more than 21 million American citizens lack access to such documents. They also note that women who have changed their names after marriage are also at risk of being disenfranchised. Finally, they point out that it is already illegal under federal law for noncitizens to vote. Stateline reporter Matt Vasilogambros can be reached at mvasilogambros@
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Advocates vow to fight for the rights of NYC immigrants
NEW YORK (PIX11) — There's no denying migrants in New York City are terrified, staying away from school, church, and work – to avoid arrest during an ICE immigration raid. In fact, we learned Thursday that Edgar, a restaurant cook we recently interviewed for PIX11 Community CloseUp, told us although he liked his job, he quit out of fear just days after our interview. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State It is in this ever-intensifying atmosphere that ICE agents' field tactics specifically, what places are off limits once again dominate the collective conversation about where migrants can feel safe in New York City. Most places of work are not on that list. But immigration advocates, gathering at Manhattan's St. Mark's Church Thursday to condemn the Trump Administration for disregarding a 'sensitive location' designation for other locations. 'This is part and parcel of the mass deportation agenda,' said NY Immigration Coalition president Murad Awawdeh. The Homeland Security memo released on Jan. 21 reads in part: 'Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.' NYC mayor downplays economic concerns of Trump deportation plan In Brooklyn, Thursday, councilmember Zellnor Myrie – one of Mayor Eric Adams' expected primary rivals, accused the administration of not doing enough to discourage local cooperation with federal agents. He zeroed in on the inclusion of a final sentence in a recent City Hall memo detailing guidance for city employees – especially at hospitals, which reads: 'You cannot take affirmative steps that are intended to help a person avoid being found by ICE.' 'That sentence should be removed,' said Myrie. 'You have to ask yourself why was it included in the first place?' A City Hall spokesperson fired back Thursday: 'The claim that New York City is instructing city employees to cooperate with ICE for civil enforcement spreads misinformation that only fuels anxiety within immigrant communities. We are responsible for safeguarding the well-being of our city staff, which is why we have directed city employees not to put themselves in harm's way during federal immigration enforcement interactions. Employees are advised to contact their legal counsel in such situations and to avoid verbal or physical altercations…' 32-BJ SEIU, one of the city's largest unions, also put out a news release criticizing the Adams Administration guidance for city employees in homeless shelters. A City Hall spokesperson offered the same response as above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
