Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
The Texas Civil Rights Project is challenging the detention of two Iranian nationals, claiming they were unlawfully detained in the days after the U.S. conducted military strikes against Iran in June.
One of the men, 53-year-old Shahrokh Rahimi, was arrested at his home in San Antonio, where he had lived for more than two decades. The other, 27-year-old Argam Nazarian, was arrested in the Los Angeles area and transferred to El Paso.
Advocates claim the arrests were part of sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in June that they say included hundreds of Iranian nationals.
“They both had been released and granted bond or parole by the government, and were living safely with no threat to their community for years and years. And then immediately after the strikes, they were picked up,” said Daniel Woodward, a staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Woodward said they both have asylum cases pending — fearing persecution for their identity as Christians if they were sent back.
They are being detained without bond under a new Trump administration policy that forces immigrants without legal status to remain locked up in ICE custody — a reversal of longstanding U.S. immigration policy.
The Texas Civil Rights Project filed two habeas corpus petitions on their behalf asking for their immediate release.
“Neither one of them presents a threat to their community or is a flight risk,” Woodward said. “And so we think it makes sense for everybody, including their families, including their communities and including the United States government for financial reasons to let them out and live and live in the United States during the pendency of their immigration claims.”
Habeas corpus petitions are routed through the U.S. Attorney's office, which consults with ICE on its decisions.
In a statement, ICE confirmed that both men are currently in custody pending hearings before immigration judges.
The agency said Rahimi was arrested and served with a notice to appear before an immigration judge after he entered the United States without inspection near Blaine, Washington in 2003.
“On Feb. 9, 2010, Rahimi was ordered removed by an immigration judge to any country in the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security, excluding Iran,” said the statement. “Rahimi was arrested by ICE on June 22 for removal from the U.S. Rahimi requested, through his attorney, to reopen his case. The motion was granted. He is now pending a hearing by an immigration judge.”
ICE said Nazarian entered the United States illegally on Aug. 26, 2021.
“ICE officers arrested him June 23, during a targeted enforcement action in Glendale, California,” the statement said. “He was detained without bond, and transferred to the El Paso, Texas, area of responsibility June 27. ERO El Paso deportation officers served Nazarian with a notice to appear before an immigration judge; he remains in ICE custody pending a review of his case by an immigration judge.”
The Texas Civil Rights Project said both men’s families have been impacted by the detentions. Rahimi has a wife and daughter who live in San Antonio; Nazarian is a caretaker for his mother.
“Rahimi's wife and daughter are forced to live with him sitting in a detention cell. His daughter continues to live in fear after watching her dad get wrenched from their family. Argam is also a family man, and has a sick mom who desperately needs him and his care. But her suffering has been exacerbated because her son is behind lock and key,” said Daniel Hatoum, Senior Supervising Attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project.
“The government’s no-bond policy not only deprives immigrants of due process, it deprives our cities and streets of fathers, sons, daughters, and people who just want to contribute to this nation.”
