As Alireza Doroudi faces deportation, his soon-to-be-wife clings to their life together, with or without the ‘American Dream'
It's not what she and her fiancé, Alireza Doroudi, had wanted. In fact, it wasn't that long ago the couple were in the middle of planning their wedding, which would've likely happened sometime in the next month or two, followed by a second wedding with their families in Iran.
But that all changed with a knock on their door outside their apartment in Tuscaloosa in the early morning hours of March 25, when U.S. Immigration and Customs agents detained Doroudi, taking him into custody and sending him over 300 miles away to the little Louisiana town where the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center is located. It's where the 32-year-old doctorate student who had been studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama has stayed for nearly a month with few answers as to why.
At the time of his arrest, Doroudi had been living in the United States on a revoked visa, which was inexplicably done just months after arriving in the country at the beginning of 2023. However, he had been assured that his student visa was valid–something his attorney, David Rozas, confirmed– and that he would be fine as long as he remained a student at UA. Before being detained by ICE, Doroudi was in the process of applying for permanent residency and was set to graduate next year.
Now, all the plans that Doroudi and Bajgani had for their life together are in question.
'I feel like I've shattered,' Bajgani said during a Zoom call as she was getting ready to leave with a friend for Louisiana Friday morning. 'I've broken into pieces.'
The last month has been hard on the couple, made even harder by an immigration judge's recent decision not to grant bond to Doroudi, considering him a flight risk. In their argument for his deportation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed he posed 'significant national security concerns,' despite failing to elaborate on what those concerns were.
Bajgani and Doroudi cried together as they spoke on the phone after his hearing, where they continued to talk about the life they still want to build together. The only difference this time is whether it would involve 'the American dream' or something else entirely.
The couple first met in 2022 at the U.S. Embassy in Oman, where they were both applying for student visas to the United States. She said that while Doroudi waited seven months to be approved for a visa, she had to wait nearly a year.
Before long, they two were in America, he a doctoral student at UA and she studying educational psychology at Mississippi State University. Seeing as they were only an hour and a half away from each other, they decided to meet.
'He came with friends to Starkville, where I was studying at Mississippi State and we started dating right after,' she said. 'I think I was the one who initiated everything.'
Describing their quiet life in Tuscaloosa, Bajgani didn't speak about their respective workloads as students at the University of Alabama, but of cooking Persian food together in their apartment, hiking in north Alabama, white water rafting with her in West Virginia, and slowly building a life together. Maybe that would include a pet, maybe that would include children, but it would be done together.
'His aspiration is to be a good person, a virtuous person,' she said. 'He's the kindest and most generous person I have ever met.'
In their phone calls to one another, Bajgani spoke about how despite his dilemma, Doroudi is staying focused on his future, asking her to send him his school books, as well as his English and vocabulary books. This weekend, she hopes she can give him more by being there with him.
'I just want to go there and say 'I love you Alireza. Everything is going to be fine' and give him some encouraging words,' she said. 'I wish I could hold his hand but they don't let me hold his hand because it's over that glass door, but that's just how it is.'
Going through the emotion turmoil of Doroudi's detainment, Bajgani said she feels like she is in a prison herself, unable to focus on her work and constantly worried for his safety. At times, it has made both of them despondent about what could be in store for them.
'We were thinking that if the court or the people who are deciding for Alireza don't consider true information and what he really is, preferring to come up with something to portray him as a threat, what is the worth of fighting in this court,' she said. 'What is the worth of paying lots of money and fighting in this court and staying apart from one another.'
If Doroudi is ultimately deported and sent back to Iran, Bajgani is not afraid of going back. For her, she's afraid of what could happen if they continued to stay. It was made all the more clear after his bond was denied, despite no evidence that he is dangerous or would flee the country.
'When we saw that, we kind of lost our hope for America, for both of us,' she said. Even if they let us stay, we would've completed our degrees and we would've left in the earliest time. This is not a place to live. This is not a place to live the happy life and dream. This is not the freedom and American dream that they always talk about. It's just something that is just for a group of people, not for everyone.'
Bajgani hopes she and Doroudi can find that home where they can both thrive, if not in the US.
'I wish we could have that happy dream somewhere in this universe,' she said. 'I believe there is somewhere for both of us that they will understand how good we are, how good and pure of people we are. We are kind and are considerate of other people and we are nothing like a threat to the community.'
With many questions that remain unanswered, Bajgani hopes that those who hold Doroudi's fate in the balance do the right thing.
'I want to say that you can always choose the right, even though you have chosen the wrong,' she said. 'Please choose the right.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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USA Today
11 minutes ago
- USA Today
'No deal': Takeaways from Trump's Alaska summit with Putin
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Atlantic
42 minutes ago
- Atlantic
Trump Leaves Alaska Empty-Handed
So what was that all for? President Donald Trump emerged today from his summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin without a deal and without much to say. Trump rarely misses a chance to take advantage of a global stage. But when he stood next to Putin at the conclusion of their three-hour meeting, Trump offered few details about what the men had discussed. Stunningly, for a president who loves a press conference, he took no questions from the reporters assembled at a military base in Alaska. In his brief remarks, Trump conceded that he and Putin had not reached a deal to end the war in Ukraine or even pause the fighting. 'There's no deal until there's a deal,' the president said. He characterized their three-hour meeting—vaguely—as 'very productive.' Of the outstanding issues between the two sides, he admitted that 'one is probably significant,' but he didn't say what that was. 'We didn't get there but we have a very good chance of getting there,' Trump insisted. The Russian president, for his part, made mention of 'agreements' that had been struck behind closed doors. Yet Putin also provided no elaboration, leaving the distinct impression that it was a summit about nothing. If anything, Putin seemed to make clear that his demands regarding Ukraine haven't changed. In his usual coded way, he said an agreement could be reached only once the 'primary roots' of the conflict were 'eliminated'—which means, basically, that Ukraine should be part of Russia. 'We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won't throw a wrench in the works,' Putin said, in what sounded like a warning. 'They will not make any backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.' As Putin and Trump boarded their respective airplanes for their flights home, Ukraine and Europe were left guessing as to what the coming days will bring. Will more missiles fly toward Kyiv? 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When the two men did speak, they mostly delivered pleasantries. Putin even repeated Trump's talking point that Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 would never have happened had Trump been in office then. And Trump, once more, said that the two men 'had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.' That the summit happened at all was perceived by many as a victory for Putin, who, after years as an international pariah, was granted a photo with a U.S. president on American soil—on land that once belonged to Russia, no less. And he was greeted in an over-the-top, stage-managed welcome that involved a literal red carpet for a man accused of war crimes. Putin disembarked his plane this morning moments after Trump stepped off Air Force One, and the two men strode toward each other past parked F-22 fighter jets before meeting with a warm handshake and smiles. After posing for photographs, and quickly peering up at a military flyover that roared above them, the two men stepped into the presidential limousine, the heavily fortified vehicle known as 'the Beast.' The White House had announced earlier in the day that the two men would not have a previously planned one-on-one meeting, but would instead have a pair of sitdowns flanked by advisers. But here, in the backseat of the Beast, Putin had his time alone with Trump. As the limousine drove off the tarmac to the summit site, Putin could be seen in a rear window laughing. Putin and Trump were scheduled to have a formal meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, followed by lunch. But after the first meeting ran long, extending to more than three hours, reporters were abruptly rushed to the room where the press conference would be staged. The second meeting had been canceled. Had there been a breakthrough or a blowup? Putin sported the better body language: He almost glowed as he spoke to the press, offering a history lesson about Alaska, while praising the 'neighborly' relations between the men. And, oddly, he got to speak first, even though Trump was the summit's host. Trump, in contrast, seemed subdued, only perking up when Putin ended their media appearance by suggesting that their next summit be in Moscow. 'I think Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won. Putin got everything he could have wished for, but he's not home free yet,' John Bolton, who was a national security adviser in Trump's first term, told me. 'Zelensky and the Europeans must be dismayed. And I thought Trump looked very tired at the press event. Putin looked energetic.' Putin seemed eager to broaden the conversation beyond Ukraine. He brought Russian business leaders to Alaska, hoping to play to Trump's hopes of better economic relations between the two countries, and perhaps strike a rare-earth-minerals deal. He also suggested earlier this week that he would revisit a nuclear-arms agreement, perhaps allowing Trump to leave the summit with some sort of win that did not involve Ukraine. But nothing was announced on those fronts either. The fear in Kyiv and across Europe was that Trump is so desperate for the fighting to stop, he might have agreed to Putin's terms regardless of what Ukraine wants. That did not happen, which was cheered across the continent, and Trump said he would soon consult with Zelensky and NATO. But Putin has shown no sign of compromising his positions. He wants Russia to keep the territory it conquered, and Ukraine to forgo the security guarantees that could prevent Moscow from attacking again. Those terms are nonstarters for Ukraine. The Europeans and Ukrainians had good reason to be nervous about today's summit. Trump has spent most of his decade on the global stage being extraordinarily deferential to Putin, which continued when he returned to the White House this year. He initially sided with Russia—even blaming Ukraine for causing its own invasion—before slowly souring on Putin's refusal to end the war. This summit came together in about a week's time' final details were still being arranged even as some of Putin's delegation arrived in Alaska yesterday. Trump's personal envoy, Steve Witkoff, had made several visits to Moscow in recent months. He had been in the Middle East when he received word through a back channel that Putin might finally be willing to come to the table given Trump's more hostile rhetoric toward Putin and threat of sanctions. After a series of meetings with key Trump senior aides and multiple flights across the Atlantic, Witkoff met again with Putin and accepted the offer of a summit. (He also accepted a twisted gift: Putin presented Witkoff an Order of Lenin award to pass along to a senior CIA official whose son had been killed in Ukraine fighting alongside Russia.) Summits, particularly those as high-stakes as ones between American and Russian presidents, usually take weeks if not months to plan. Everything is carefully choreographed: the agenda, the participants, the ceremony. Normally, the outcome is more or less predetermined: In the days before the actual summit, aides hash out some sort of agreement so the two leaders simply need to show up and shake hands to make the deal official. That was clearly not the case today—or in other Trump-Putin meetings. Trump had met with Putin seven previous times, all but one coming on the sidelines of larger summits and all friendly. The first was at the G20 in Hamburg, Germany, in 2017, when the two men sat next to each other for an hours-long leaders dinner. Their last meeting, at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, in the fall of 2019, ended with Trump mockingly warning Putin to never interfere again in American elections, with a sarcastic smile and exaggerated finger wag. But Helsinki is the headliner. It came against the backdrop of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Moscow. I was one of the two American journalists called upon to ask a question, and I posed to Trump whether he believed Putin or his own U.S. intelligence agencies about Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Putin glared at me. Trump sided with Moscow. The eruption on both sides of the Atlantic was fierce and immediate, and even some loyal Republicans said they thought Trump's answer was a betrayal of American values. Some of Trump's top aides—including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chief of Staff John Kelly—were photographed with pained expressions on their faces. Fiona Hill, Trump's Russia adviser, told me later she nearly faked a heart attack in a desperate attempt to get the summit to stop. Anchorage wasn't Helsinki. For that, Europe can be grateful. Trump didn't give away Ukrainian land to Russia or demand that Zelensky take a bad deal, at least immediately. But Putin did get much of what he wanted, including a high-profile summit and, most of all, more time to continue his war. When he boarded his plane to leave Alaska, he was spotted smiling again.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Donald Trump Grades His Meeting With Vladimir Putin as a 10 of 10
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. President Donald Trump on Friday lauded his bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity that he would rate the meeting as a 10 out of 10. Why It Matters Trump and Putin met Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss ending Moscow's war against Ukraine, which Putin launched in February 2022. The White House said the Russian leader reached out to request the meeting, to which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was not invited. What To Know "If you had to grade it on a scale of 1 to 10?" Hannity, arguably one of Trump's staunchest supporters in the conservative media sphere, asked the president during a prime-time broadcast Friday following the Trump-Putin summit. "So I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along great," Trump replied. "And it's good when two big powers get along especially when they're nuclear powers. You know, we're number one, they're number two in the world and that's a big deal ... you never even want to mention that word. The word 'nuclear.'" The American president went on to say that the ball is now in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's court, though he declined to say whether the Russian leader had made any concessions during the three-hour summit. On the Ukrainian side, meanwhile, there was little hope for progress following the Trump-Putin talks. Putin "won the informational war," Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament, told The New York Times. He added that Putin repeated his talking points during joint remarks with Trump after the summit, saying, "I don't see any changes." This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
