TEHRAN – In a drastic escalation of anti-Iran policy, US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained 130 Iranian citizens across the United States in the past week alone, with 670 currently being held at detention centers.
The arrests surrounded by the Trump administration as “counter-terrorism” sparked fierce criticism from Iranians and human rights defenders, and denounced them as racist profiling rooted in Iranphobia.
The crackdown is unfolding in intrusive atrocities. In Los Angeles, Ice Agents stormed the home of Iranian immigrants, including a Farusian-speaking church couple of Pastor Aratorusian.
According to a Reuters report, Torosian witnessed a federal officer pinning the woman to the ground during his arrest, causing a violent panic attack. “She’s sick! Call 911!” he later cried out, “Why are you guys doing this?” Despite ICE’s claims to justify “national security.”
At the same time, Ice Director Todd Lyons confirmed the agency’s “target enforcement” against citizens “from high-risk countries, including Iran,” in an interview with News Nation, and made openly prioritized the operational ethnic group.
The Myth of Forged Threats and “Sleeper Cells”
Trump administration officials and anti-Iranian propagandists have stoked fear by claiming that detainees have ties to “Hezbollah or the IRGC.”
This suspicion has been strengthened by Tehran Times Exposé, revealing that Tel Aviv will explode in US soil and pin it to Tehran.
The timing of this revelation and the Trump administration’s anti-Iran persecution was particularly bad, coming shortly after the Israeli administration’s war with Iran, escalating on June 13th with the US-backed “Operation Midmar” on June 21st. A stealth bomber armed with a 30,000-pound GBU-57 giant weapon intruder and a Tomahawk cruise missile fired from an Ohio-class submarine.
Despite these unfounded allegations promoting anti-Iranian sentiment, ICE’s own June 24 press release detailing 11 arrests and cited misdemeanors such as Visa’s tenure or a drug conviction decades ago, rather than terrorism.
One case involved forging of official seals. The other is charging your firearms. Only one individual was noted for his service in Iranian military.
Deporting weapons
This week, the Supreme Court will rule this week of deporting greenlight to third countries without legitimate proceedings, allowing ICE to bypass international anti-rotation laws.
This policy is already causing pain. In February, 12 Iranians, including children, were tied up and flew to Panama on US military planes.
“Women and children continued to die, but the US military didn’t drive them away,” one person said in an interview with American media. Stuck without legal aid or funds, they remain locked up under US surveillance.
In a statement in February, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei condemned practices such as “humiliation,” pledged “all measures” to protect citizens, and directed a diplomatic mission to support diplomats.
The legal attack on this legitimate process is in the shadow of Trump’s latest travel ban, with Iranian citizens alongside 18 other countries, except for Iranians. This is a policy accused of being promoted by the “supremacist and racist thinking” that elects Muslims and Iranians for collective doubt.
It nude the xenophobia that permeates US policies, from White House orders to ice detention centers, nude the xenophobia that is permeated by US policies – amplifying the bias of national approval under the guise of national security.