The grand-niece of the dead Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani was living a glamorous lifestyle in Los Angeles before being arrested by ICE.
Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, and her mother, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar were arrested after their US everlasting resident status was revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio over ties to the Iranian regime.
Hosseiny had been living within the US since 2015, when she first entered the country on a student visa, before getting everlasting residency in the course of the Biden administration in 2023.
Despite her family’s ties to the Iranian regime, Hosseiny’s social media presence showed a life at odds with it.
Posts showed her travelling across the US, visiting Miami, Las Vegas and Alaska, in addition to laughing and smiling at music festivals.
Other images showed her aboard private aircraft and yachts and wearing clothes that may be forbidden under Iranian law, including bikinis and miniskirts.
Her mother had called America the ‘Great Devil’ in social media posts as she lived in California, in addition to espousing support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a delegated terror organisation, in line with the State Department.
Each women’s green cards were revoked hours before ICE arrested them in LA on Friday.
Soleimani commanded Iran’s elite Quds Force, a part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and was the country’s strongest military figure before he was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.
Trump referenced the killing again last week, describing Soleimani as ‘an evil genius’ while claiming Iran would have been in a stronger position within the war had he still been alive.
The arrests form a part of a broader crackdown on individuals with alleged links to Iran.
Soleimani Afshar first entered the US on a tourist visa in 2015 and was granted asylum in 2019, before receiving a green card in 2021, however the DHS said her asylum claim was fraudulent.
The IRGC, which Hosseiny’s mother is alleged to have supported, was named as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US in 2019.
The previous commander’s daughter Narjes Soleimani has said the 2 women ‘don’t have any connection in anyway’ to her father and accused Washington of fabricating claims.
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