US detains Iranian-American family over mother-in-law's 1979 hostage crisis role

Maryam Tahmasebi is a psychology professor who taught in Los Angeles. Her husband, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, worked in academia. Their teenage son attended school. All three held green cards—permanent resident status in the United States. In April, immigration agents detained all of them. Four months later, Tahmasebi and her son remain locked in a detention center in Dilley, Texas. Her husband is held separately, under what she describes as "horrible conditions," at another facility in Pearsall. The reason for their detention, according to the government, traces back nearly fifty years.

Hashemi's mother is Masoumeh Ebtekar. In 1979, she was a spokesperson for the Iranian students who seized the US embassy in Tehran and held 52 American hostages for 444 days. Ebtekar became known in English-language media as "Screaming Mary" or "Sister Mary" for her statements on behalf of the occupiers. She later held several positions in the Iranian government, most recently as vice president for women and family affairs until 2021. But Hashemi was not born until after the hostage crisis ended. His wife and son were born decades later, in a different country, to different parents.

Yet in July 2026, the US State Department revoked the family's green cards. No formal charges were filed. No evidence of wrongdoing by Tahmasebi, Hashemi, or their son was presented. The government cited national security interests but offered no specifics. When Tahmasebi's legal team asked for details, the State Department refused to provide them, citing protected and classified information. When the family asked to leave voluntarily—to simply depart the country and end the ordeal—the Department of Homeland Security said no. The government wanted them to remain in detention.

The timing is worth noting. In January 2026, an online petition circulated calling for Hashemi's deportation based on his mother's 1979 role. Conservative outlets published reports from outside his home. Within days, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the status revocation. The escalation coincided with rising US hostilities toward Iran and a broader campaign by diaspora activists to identify and target relatives of Iranian officials living abroad.

Tahmasebi wrote about the experience in The Nation magazine, writing from inside her detention facility with limited email access. "We have been put through hell for the past four months, and our physical and mental health have deteriorated in ways that might not be reversible for years," she said. She described the logic as "bloodline punishment." She had come to America to build a life defined by her own choices and achievements, not her family's history. "But now our lives are being upended for something someone else did nearly 50 years ago," she wrote.

The family entered the US legally in 2014 on visas and obtained permanent resident status in 2016. They worked, paid taxes, and lived quietly in Los Angeles. Maria Kari, part of their legal team, told the BBC that the government has never charged the family under any national security provision of immigration law. "If the government had any evidence that this family threatened national security, it has had several opportunities to say so but the government has not," Kari said. "In fact, no US government agency has presented any evidence to support their allegations."

The State Department spokesman, Tommy Pigott, declined to explain the decision, saying only that the government retains the right to revoke status for those who "pose a threat to the national security interests of the US." He offered nothing more. The family remains detained. Their request for voluntary departure was denied. A government attorney suggested they might instead enter into what is called a stipulated removal—a process in which they would waive their right to a hearing and accept deportation. The family's lawyers are fighting the revocation, but the outcome remains uncertain. For now, Tahmasebi, Hashemi, and their son wait in separate detention facilities in Texas, their status in limbo, their future undefined.