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The Trump administration is refusing to grant voluntary self-deportation to detained Iranian family members who are related to a key figure in the 1979 Tehran U.S. Embassy hostage crisis known as “Screaming Mary,” say lawyers.
Lawful permanent U.S. residents Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their 16-year-old son have spent more than three months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody since their arrests in April, attorneys said.
They continue to be held, despite offering to fund their voluntary departure from the United States to relocate in Türkiye.
Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, the 19-year-old university student who served as the English-language spokesperson for the students who seized the Embassy and held 66 diplomats and personnel hostage during the Iranian Revolution.
Throughout the 444-day siege, Ebtekar’s frequent appearances before Western media earned her the nickname “Screaming Mary” in the U.S. press. She later held several senior positions in the Iranian government, including vice president for environmental affairs.
The case unfolds amid heightened U.S.-Iran tensions during the 2026 Iran war, when scrutiny of Iranian nationals and those with ties to Iran has increased. On April 4, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, the grandniece of late Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, were arrested after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the revocation of their lawful permanent resident status over alleged ties to Iran’s regime.
On April 11, Rubio announced that the State Department had revoked the green cards of Hashemi, his wife, and their son, citing Hashemi’s relationship to his mother.
The administration has not alleged that the family participated in any criminal or hostile activity. Instead, the government’s case relies on a foreign-policy determination tied to the relationship with Ebtekar.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek that ICE arrested Hashemi, Tahmasebi, and their minor son because their presence in the U.S. posed “a clear threat to our national security and foreign policy.”
Hashemi has been separated from his wife and son while detained, despite all three being held at the Dilley ICE facility in Texas, attorneys said.
Separate immigration judges heard motions seeking voluntary departure for the family because their cases are split, with Eissa appearing before one judge and Maryam and the couple’s son before another. Attorneys for the family said motions for voluntary departure were filed in both cases, but the government opposed them.
Documents obtained by Newsweek show that family attorneys sought voluntary departure at their own expense. The filings say that the family fears returning to Iran, where they say they would face torture and persecution, and instead requested permission to relocate to Türkiye, where their attorneys argue they can lawfully enter using their Iranian passports.
Court filings say that after negotiations between the parties, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rejected a proposed voluntary departure agreement. “Respondents circulated a proposed stipulated order granting voluntary departure. The Department has now declined in writing,” the filing states.
According to the motion, the DHS instead offered “a stipulated order of removal, with continued detention.”
The filing says the parties were given time following a July 1 immigration court hearing to pursue a stipulated grant of voluntary departure before negotiations ended without an agreement.
The family requested up to 120 days to depart voluntarily to Türkiye at their own expense, per court filings. Newsweek contacted the Department of Justice on July 9 to ask why the government is opposing the family’s request to voluntarily depart the United States for a third country.
DHS did not directly address why it opposed the family’s proposed voluntary departure arrangement. The agency said Hashemi entered the United States on an F-1 student visa in 2014 and that the family became green card holders in 2016.
“If we have reason to believe a green card holder poses a threat to the U.S., the green card will be revoked,” the agency spokesperson said.
Maryam Tahmasebi is a psychology and statistics professor at Los Angeles Pierce College. Attorneys said she was teaching class on April 9 when she realized her husband had not arrived to pick up their son from school and initially feared he had been involved in an accident.
She later learned ICE had detained him. She and the couple’s son were subsequently arrested, attorneys said.
Public records and faculty biographies identify Hashemi as an adjunct professor affiliated with The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where he completed a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership. His current employment status is unclear. Court filings show the government’s case relies on the foreign-policy ground of removability under immigration law.
In the motions, attorneys for the mother and child argue that neither Tahmasebi nor her son has a criminal record and argue they remain eligible for pre-conclusion voluntary departure. One filing argues that the government’s case against Tahmasebi rests on “a two-page foreign-policy determination” and “alleges no act, statement, or belief of Maryam Tahmasebi’s own.”
The attorneys also argue that permitting the family to leave voluntarily would be consistent with the government’s position that they should not remain in the United States.
“The government cannot simultaneously assert that Maryam Tahmasebi’s continued presence is a foreign-policy problem and that her voluntary departure should be denied,” the motion reads.
Jake Hart, a Los Angeles screenwriter who met Tahmasebi during the 2023 writers’ strike and later collaborated with her on a short film, described the couple as community-minded and deeply committed to education and volunteer work.
“I try to take comfort in knowing that Maryam and Eissa are strong-willed people, that if anyone could survive this injustice, it’s them, but the government seems to be determined to grind them down,” Hart told Newsweek.
He described Hashemi as “the sweetest person I know” and said his kindness left a lasting impression. Despite months in detention, he said, Hashemi continues to maintain his sense of humor during phone calls from custody. “He always finds a way to make me laugh when he calls me from the ICE detention center,” Hart said. “This is a very special human being.”
However, the family’s federal habeas case, filed in Texas, alleges deteriorating health conditions during detention. Attorneys say all three family members have struggled with depression and anxiety.
Attorneys said the detention has been particularly difficult for the couple’s 16-year-old son, who has spent most of his life in California and speaks only English. Attorney Maria Kari said all three family members have lost significant weight in custody, “but especially the son,” and described the teenager as struggling to understand why “the only home he’s truly known is treating him in this way.”
She called the experience “a huge upset and shock for any child,” adding that he is being punished for “his grandparents’ political affiliations and political speech in a foreign country 50 years ago.” “It’s truly awful and difficult to wrap one’s head around what the government has done by cruelly separating this family for no reason except to inflict maximum pain and trauma,” Kari said.
“They have opposed the Iranian regime all their lives; they are literally being punished for their bloodline,” Hassan M. Ahmad, Managing Attorney at the HMA Law Firm, told Newsweek.
The attorneys say the family is willing to leave the United States and relocate to a third country rather than return to Iran. For now, however, they remain in ICE custody as litigation continues in court.
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