ICE Detains Niece of Qasem Soleimani After Rubio Revokes Green Cards

The niece of slain Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani is in federal immigration custody after Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally revoked her lawful permanent resident status and that of her daughter, accusing both of promoting Iranian regime propaganda while living in Los Angeles.

Federal agents arrested Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her unnamed daughter on the night of April 3-4, 2026. The State Department confirmed both are in ICE custody but declined to disclose their specific location. Afshar's husband was separately barred from entering the United States.

Rubio's justification centered on Afshar's now-deleted Instagram account, which the State Department said she used to celebrate attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East, praise Iran's new Supreme Leader, denounce the United States as the "Great Satan," and voice support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rubio accused Afshar of pushing regime propaganda "while enjoying a lavish lifestyle in Los Angeles." The IRGC is designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.

Qasem Soleimani commanded the Quds Force, the IRGC's elite foreign operations unit responsible for covert missions and proxy military campaigns across the Middle East, until a US drone strike killed him near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020. The Pentagon described the strike, carried out "at the direction of the President" during Trump's first term, as aimed at deterring future attacks on American personnel. Iran's Foreign Ministry has maintained the United States bears "definitive international responsibility" for his killing.

The arrests follow Rubio's revocation earlier in April of the green cards of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of Ali Larijani, former Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi. Both have since left the country and are permanently barred from re-entry.

The State Department framed both enforcement actions as deliberate policy, warning that "the Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.