Latest news with #Mandonna"Donna"Kashanian
Axios
2 days ago
- Politics
- Axios
Noncriminal ICE arrests spiked in Louisiana in June
Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests of people in Louisiana with no criminal charges or convictions surged in June, per newly obtained data. Why it matters: The numbers illustrate a major shift that came soon after the Trump administration tripled ICE's arrest quota. Zoom in: The June 22 arrest of 64-year-old Mandonna "Donna" Kashanian, a Lakeview mom who was born in Iran, prompted a community outcry. Kashanian, who has since been released, was part of a national wave of arrests of people without criminal records. Driving the news: People with no criminal charges or convictions made up 39% of ICE arrests in Louisiana in early June, which is up from 21% for the entire month of May, before the arrest quota increase. How it works: That is according to agency data obtained by the UC Berkeley School of Law's Deportation Data Project through Freedom of Information Act requests, and is based on seven-day trailing averages. The big picture: The increase in noncriminal ICE arrests came despite the Trump administration claiming to focus on criminals living in the country illegally. The spike also happened after the Trump administration told ICE to arrest at least 3,000 people daily, up from a previous quota of 1,000 people daily.
Time of India
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
After decades in US, Iranians arrested in Trump's deportation drive
Mandonna "Donna" Kashanian lived in the United States for 47 years, married a US citizen and raised their daughter. She was gardening in the yard of her New Orleans home when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers handcuffed and took her away, her family said. Kashanian arrived in 1978 on a student visa and applied for asylum, fearing retaliation for her father's support of the US-backed shah. She lost her bid, but she was allowed to remain with her husband and child if she checked in regularly with immigration officials, her husband and daughter said. She complied, once checking in from South Carolina during Hurricane Katrina. She is now being held at an immigration detention centre in Basile, Louisiana, while her family tries to get information. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo Other Iranians are also getting arrested by immigration authorities after decades in the United States. The US Department of Homeland Security won't say how many people they've arrested, but US military strikes on Iran have fuelled fears that there is more to come. "Some level of vigilance, of course, makes sense, but what it seems like ICE has done is basically give out an order to round up as many Iranians as you can, whether or not they're linked to any threat and then arrest them and deport them, which is very concerning," said Ryan Costello, policy director of the National Iranian American Council, an advocacy group. Live Events Homeland Security did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on Kashanian's case but have been touting arrests of Iranians. The department announced the arrests of at least 11 Iranians on immigration violations during the weekend of the US missile strikes. US Customs and Border Protection said, without elaborating, that it arrested seven Iranians at a Los Angeles-area address that "has been repeatedly used to harbour illegal entrants linked to terrorism." The department "has been full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through Biden's fraudulent parole programs or otherwise," spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said of the 11 arrests. She didn't offer any evidence of terrorist or extremist ties. Her comment on parole programmes referred to President Joe Biden's expanded legal pathways to entry, which his successor, Donald Trump, shut down. Russell Milne, Kashanian's husband, said his wife is not a threat. Her appeal for asylum was complicated because of "events in her early life," he explained. A court found an earlier marriage of hers to be fraudulent. But over four decades, Kashanian, 64, built a life in Louisiana. The couple met when she was bartending as a student in the late 1980s. They married and had a daughter. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, filmed Persian cooking tutorials on YouTube and was a grandmother figure to the children next door. The fear of deportation always hung over the family, Milne said, but he said his wife did everything that was being asked of her. "She's meeting her obligations," Milne said. "She's retirement age. She's not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?" While Iranians have been crossing the border illegally for years, especially since 2021, they have faced little risk of being deported to their home countries due to severed diplomatic relations with the US. That seems to no longer be the case. The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, including Iranians, to countries other than their own in an attempt to circumvent diplomatic hurdles with governments that won't take their people back. During Trump's second term, countries including El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama have taken back noncitizens from the US. The administration has asked the Supreme Court to clear the way for several deportations to South Sudan, a war-ravaged country with which it has no ties, after the justices allowed deportations to countries other than those noncitizens came from. The US Border Patrol arrested Iranians 1,700 times at the Mexican border from October 2021 through November 2024, according to the most recent public data available. The Homeland Security Department reported that about 600 Iranians overstayed visas as business or exchange visitors, tourists and students in the 12-month period through September 2023, the most recent data reports. Iran was one of 12 countries subject to a US travel ban that took effect this month. Some fear ICE's growing deportation arrests will be another blow. In Oregon, an Iranian man was detained by immigration agents this past week while driving to the gym. He was picked up roughly two weeks before he was scheduled for a check-in at ICE offices in Portland, according to court documents filed by his attorney, Michael Purcell. The man, identified in court filings as S.F., has lived in the US for over 20 years, and his wife and two children are US citizens. S.F. applied for asylum in the US in the early 2000s, but his application was denied in 2002. His appeal failed but the government did not deport him and he continued to live in the country for decades, according to court documents. Due to "changed conditions" in Iran, S.F. would face "a vastly increased danger of persecution" if he were to be deported, Purcell wrote in his petition. "These circumstances relate to the recent bombing by the United States of Iranian nuclear facilities, thus creating a de facto state of war between the United States and Iran." S.F.'s long residency in the US, his conversion to Christianity and the fact that his wife and children are US citizens "sharply increase the possibility of his imprisonment in Iran, or torture or execution," he said. Similarly, Kashanian's daughter said she is worried what will happen to her mother. "She tried to do everything right," Kaitlynn Milne said.
