00:00From a luxury life in Los Angeles to facing deportation,
00:03the niece and grand-niece of slain Iranian military general Qasem Soleimani are now in ICE custody.
00:09Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were arrested after the U.S. revoked their green cards
00:15and they are now awaiting removal from the country.
00:18Until recently, both were living in the United States as permanent residents.
00:23But officials say Afshar, the niece of Qasem Soleimani, had openly supported Iran's leadership.
00:29praised attacks on Americans and referred to the U.S. as the Great Satan.
00:33Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would not allow foreign nationals
00:38who support anti-American regimes to remain in the country.
00:41According to authorities, Afshar entered the U.S. in 2015
00:45and was granted asylum before later obtaining permanent residency.
00:49But officials now say that status may have been fraudulent,
00:53pointing to repeated trips back to Iran despite claiming she could not safely return.
00:57At the same time, investigators say she and her daughter were living a lavish lifestyle,
01:03sharing images of luxury travel and high-end living across the United States.
01:08Afshar's uncle Qasem Soleimani led Iran's Quds Force before being killed in a U.S. airstrike in 2020,
01:15an event that sharply escalated tensions between Washington and Tehran.
01:20However, members of Soleimani's family have denied any connection.
01:23In a statement reported by Iran's Fars News Agency, his daughter Zainab said the two women
01:29arrested in the U.S. are not related to the family, calling the claim made by the U.S. Department
01:35a lie.
01:36Marco Rubio says he has stripped Qasem Soleimani's niece of her U.S. residency
01:41and both women are now being held by ICE as the U.S. moves to deport them from the country.
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