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Iranian student in Alabama to self-deport despite withdrawal of initial charge behind his arrest

Iranian student in Alabama to self-deport despite withdrawal of initial charge behind his arrest

Independent09-05-2025

An Iranian mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama has decided to self-deport after six weeks in a Louisiana detention center despite the government dropping a charge behind his initial arrest, his lawyer and fiancee said.
Alireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March as part of President Donald Trump's widespread immigration crackdown and has been held at a facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 300 miles (480 kilometers) from where he lived with his fiancee in Alabama.
At the time the State Department said Doroudi posed 'significant national security concerns.'
Doroudi's lawyer, David Rozas, said the government has not offered any evidence to support that claim, however.
Doroudi's visa was revoked in June 2023. Officials did not give a reason and ignored numerous inquiries from him that year, according to his fiancee, Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani.
Back then the University of Alabama advised Doroudi that he was legally allowed to stay but would not be allowed to re-enter if he left, Baigani added.
This spring the government filed two charges against Doroudi to justify deporting him, saying his visa was revoked and he was not 'in status' as a student, Rozas said.
On Thursday a U.S. government attorney withdrew the first of those and said the visa revocation was 'prudential,' meaning it would not go into effect until after he leaves the country — in line with what the university told Doroudi earlier.
Rozas said he has submitted evidence disputing the remaining accusation, that he is not an active student.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the case, including Rozas' characterization of the initial arrest as an error.
The judge in the case, Maithe Gonzalez, gave both sides until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi's request to redetermine eligibility for bond. Doroudi decided to give up rather than continue to fight deportation.
'He told me that if they let him to go out, there was a good chance that he would have fought his case for the sake of other students and for the sake of himself,' Bajgani said afterward by phone. 'They just want to make him tired so he can deport himself.'
Bajgani, who drove 11 hours round-trip to attend the hourlong hearing, echoed Rozas' confusion about why Doroudi was targeted for deportation, saying he has no criminal record, entered the country legally and was not politically outspoken like other students who have been targeted.
She affectionately described her fiance as a 'nerd' and 'a really big thinker' who spent long days in the lab and enjoys anime. He does not deserve what happened to him, she said, and now the life they built in Alabama is over.
'I am not happy about the whole thing that happened to us, and I need time to grieve for what I am going to put behind and leave,' Baigani said. 'All the dreams, friendships and dreams we had with each other.'
In a letter to Bajgani from behind bars in April, Doroudi called his detention a 'pure injustice.'
'I didn't cause any trouble in this country,' he said. 'I didn't enter illegally. I followed all the legal paths.'
Rozas said he has not seen such a case in his 21 years as an immigration attorney. He accused authorities of denying his client due process and forcing him to choose between indefinite detention and self-deporting.
'I'm absolutely devastated,' Rozas said, 'and I think it's a travesty of justice.'
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Trump sends 700 Marines & another 2k National Guard to riot-ravaged LA as chaos spreads with arrests in NYC & Texas
Trump sends 700 Marines & another 2k National Guard to riot-ravaged LA as chaos spreads with arrests in NYC & Texas

The Sun

time22 minutes ago

  • The Sun

Trump sends 700 Marines & another 2k National Guard to riot-ravaged LA as chaos spreads with arrests in NYC & Texas

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In limbo: families hoping for change to UK income rules for spousal visas
In limbo: families hoping for change to UK income rules for spousal visas

The Guardian

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  • The Guardian

In limbo: families hoping for change to UK income rules for spousal visas

Three weeks ago, Keir Starmer said the UK was at risk of becoming an 'island of strangers'. But for countless British citizens across the country, that isolation is already a lived reality by design of immigration rules that force them to choose between their homeland and family. The minimum income requirement dictates how much a person needs to earn in order to bring their non-British partner here. Set at £18,600 for a decade, the Conservatives announced plans to raise it dramatically to £38,700 before backtracking after a public backlash, instead moving it in three gradual stages starting with £29,000 in April last year. David Kitenda (left) with his children Naomi and Daniel and wife Rebecca. Kitenda says the income threshold has made him feel unwelcome: 'It feels like another way of stopping people of certain other backgrounds.' The threshold of £29,000 was temporarily frozen by Labour upon taking office. The government has asked the migration advisory committee to review the policy and its findings are expected imminently. What the government does, or does not do, with the results has the potential to drastically transform family life for those separated by the threshold. It could reunite children with missing parents, end enforced single parenthood, enable couples to begin families and end years of living in limbo. Camille Auclair and Moisés Álvarez Jiménez met in Mexico in 2017 and two years later they were married. The couple temporarily settled in Mexico in the knowledge they would eventually move to the UK. But in 2019, Auclair became severely unwell after undiagnosed pelvic actinomycosis devastated her immune system, leading to two hospitalisations within six months. Camille Auclair and Moisés Álvarez Jiménez at their home in Mexico. But another shock came the following year when she was diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency, meaning her chance to start a family could be ending fast at just 28 years old. Her condition triggered a pressing need to return home – not only to be closer to family, but with the added urgency of wanting to start her own. 'I was faced with a timeline. I was essentially told, if you ever want to have children, you're probably going to have to have it facilitated with fertility care,' she said. She spoke to an NHS doctor who said someone with her condition would be eligible for fertility treatment but that she would have to use an anonymous sperm donor, as her Mexican husband was ineligible for NHS treatment until he gained residency. For an emerging artist living in Mexico, reaching the £18,600 threshold was already a challenge, only exacerbated by her health. But nonetheless, Auclair was on track to make it – until the bar was abruptly raised to £29,000 in 2023. 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The uncertainty and renewal fees have halted their dream of fostering a child in the UK. Another troubling aspect is that many assume that bringing their partner to the UK is an intrinsic right, and do not realise the threshold exists until after they have committed to someone and started their family. One of those is Lisa Young*, 31, who was five months pregnant when she found out about the threshold and eight months pregnant when it was increased to £29,000. With her due date around the corner, she realised she would have to make a choice – raise her child alone in the UK and rely on state benefits, or stay in Japan with her husband. Her husband watched as she was forced into an unbearable choice. 'He said you can stay here,' Young said. 'And I said, but I can't. I can't do this without you. I don't want to do this without you.' Lisa Young* photographed with her young daughter. 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But obviously I want things to change. I want to have the right for me and my family to return home. 'If Labour really were the party for working people, ordinary working people, then they wouldn't keep a policy that discriminates based on economic class.' David and Macsen Lewis photographed at their home in Newport in early May after two and a half years of separation from Lucy, Macsen's mother. Just a week ago, Lucy was able to join her family in the UK for the first time. But it is not just women who feel the brunt of this policy, it is also children and fathers. When David Lewis's elderly mother's declining health forced him to return to the UK, he found himself navigating single parenthood, bringing his four-year-old son Macsen with him and leaving his wife, Lucy, behind in Kenya. As a carer, Lewis had been assured he would be exempt from the income requirement and could sponsor his wife's visa to join them. He expected the reunion to take three or four months at most. 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The right to family life in the UK is protected under article 8 of the European convention on human rights, which means those who do not qualify to bring their partners here can apply for exceptional circumstances, though such requests are commonly rejected even in cases where people meet the criteria – as happened to Jessica and Sanas. Sanas, from Sri Lanka, was only able to join his family after he and Jessica went public about their separation and overturned the Home Office's initial rejection. At that time, the UK government had issued a travel warning for Britons visiting Sri Lanka as it endured economic collapse, with severe shortages of necessities such as fuel, food and medicine. Jessica and Sanas spent 11 months apart and say the separation had a lasting impact on their 10-year-old son, Tariq, as well as the entire family's sense of stability. 'He lives with a feeling that his father could be taken away from him,' Jessica said. 'We can't ever really relax. We're always waiting for the next [policy] change.' After surviving a violent carjacking in Brazil, Raquel moved back to her home town in Havant, Hampshire, with her two sons for safety. But despite earning £23,000, high childcare costs and visa fees mean her husband, Manoel, remains separated from the family apart from temporary tourist visits that are only affordable because of the modelling careers of their two sons, Jaime and Emanoel. 'Black clouds hang above us all,' said Raquel. 'The storm abates but never fully passes.' The review comes as Labour faces pressure to appease the right, compromising the values the party once campaigned for. In its 2017 manifesto, Labour vowed to abolish the threshold and proposed replacing it with a requirement that families demonstrate they can live without recourse to public funds. And yet, in its recent immigration white paper, the government announced plans to crack down on legal migration routes, with families a target area despite previous pledges. From his home in Newport, Lewis said he felt like he and countless others were being scapegoated and legal migration had become a bargaining chip. 'There is so much good that comes from legal migration and they are demonising it because they have to be seen to be doing something.' Now that Lucy is here, she cannot qualify for benefits, and yet Lewis believes there is a widespread assumption that it costs taxpayers for her to be here. 'If something happened and she had no income and no way of supporting herself, she would be on her own.' Roksana Aung and her son Alexander, eight, photographed at their home in Cardiff. 'But because I am British, my son has no father and I have no husband,' said Roksana. Roksana Aung is a single mother who has lived alone on a remote Cardiff estate since 2017 with her eight-year-old son, Alexander. Aung cannot work because of her chronic illness, fibromyalgia and post-traumatic stress disorder, and receives benefits and care support. Her husband, Nay Lin Aung, is an undocumented migrant from Myanmar. The pair met when working together in Thailand; he was the captain of a scuba boat, and she dealt with the tourists. After Aung's Thai visa ran out, the three of them tried living in Myanmar but the fighting became too intense – prompting Aung to return to the UK and Nay Lin Aung to flee to Malaysia. Despite meeting the criteria for exceptional circumstances, there are no viable pathways in the UK immigration system to accommodate undocumented migrants such as Nay Lin Aung through spousal visas. The rules say he must make an application from his country of origin, which is now in a state of civil war. If Nay Lin Aung were able to join his family, it would mean Aung would no longer have to claim benefits or need care support. 'But because I am British, my son has no father and I have no husband,' she said. When asked what she would like to see happen, Aung said 'he could ask for a visa, board the plane, and come here', and then sighed. 'Wouldn't that be nice.' *Lisa Young declined to give her real name. *Jessica and Sanas declined to give their surname.

Los Angeles protests: Donald Trump deploys more National Guard troops and marines as disorder goes into fourth day
Los Angeles protests: Donald Trump deploys more National Guard troops and marines as disorder goes into fourth day

The Guardian

time2 hours ago

  • The Guardian

Los Angeles protests: Donald Trump deploys more National Guard troops and marines as disorder goes into fourth day

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