🔥 RUBIO TAKES AIM AT LEGAL STATUS PROTECTIONS — NOW TRUMP’S PUSH TO REMOVE OBAMA-ERA ADMISSIONS IS IGNITING A MAJOR BATTLE… |
🚨 Rubio STRIPS Green Cards From Iran-Linked Family Obama Let In — But the Viral Claim Leaves Out a Key Fact
The Obama administration did admit the family and later grant them permanent residency. Marco Rubio did revoke that status. But calling the three detainees “Islamic terrorists” goes further than the public record supports — and their removal is still being fought in court.
Marco Rubio made one of the Trump administration’s toughest immigration moves against Iranian regime-linked families this year — and the story immediately exploded across conservative social media.
The viral version is simple: Obama let Islamic terrorists and their relatives into the United States, Rubio canceled their legal status, and Trump is throwing them out.
Parts of that story are absolutely true.
But one part is doing far more work than the evidence allows.
The three members of the Hashemi family whose green cards were revoked were not publicly charged with terrorism. The administration’s case centers on their family connection to one of the most notorious figures from the 1979 Iran hostage crisis — and on the Secretary of State’s power to remove foreign nationals whose presence he says threatens U.S. foreign-policy interests.
That distinction matters, because the real story is already dramatic without turning an allegation into a fact.
Rubio Really Did Revoke Their Green Cards
Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi and their son were arrested by federal agents in April after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated their lawful permanent resident status.
The State Department said all three were placed in ICE custody pending removal from the United States.
Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, the former Iranian official who became internationally known as the English-speaking spokeswoman for the Islamist militants who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979.
The hostage crisis lasted 444 days and involved 52 Americans who remained captive until January 1981.
Rubio described Ebtekar as the leading propagandist for the hostage-takers and said the family should never have received the privilege of permanent residence in the United States.
The Obama-Era Immigration Timeline Is Also Real
The State Department’s own April statement says Hashemi, Tahmasebi and their son entered the United States in 2014 on visas issued during the Obama administration.
In June 2016, all three received lawful permanent resident status through the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program.
That means the core timeline circulating online — entry under Obama, green cards under Obama, revocation under Trump — is supported by the government’s published record.
It is also why the story has become politically potent. The Trump administration is using the case as an example of what it says were serious vetting failures in earlier immigration policy.
Here’s the Turn: The Family Members Themselves Were Not Publicly Charged With Terrorism
This is the point most viral posts blur.
Masoumeh Ebtekar was associated with the group that seized the U.S. Embassy and became the public face of the hostage-takers. But the three relatives arrested in Los Angeles are different people.
The State Department described them as foreign nationals with ties to the Iranian regime. It did not announce terrorism charges against Hashemi, Tahmasebi or their son.
The Los Angeles Times noted at the time that the government’s public statements did not identify crimes committed by the three detainees, instead emphasizing their family ties.
That does not mean the administration lacks legal authority to try to remove them. It means “their mother/grandmother was tied to the hostage-takers” and “they are terrorists” are two different factual claims.
The Government Is Using a Rare Foreign-Policy Removal Power
The legal fight is also more complicated than a normal criminal case.
According to Associated Press reporting on the family’s challenge, the administration invoked a rarely used immigration provision that allows the Secretary of State to determine that a lawful permanent resident’s presence could create potentially serious adverse foreign-policy consequences for the United States.
The family argues they are apolitical, law-abiding longtime residents and says they are being punished for the actions of a relative.
The administration argues that close ties to senior figures associated with hostile regimes can themselves create national-security and foreign-policy concerns.
That dispute is now part of the court battle over whether the government can carry out the removals.
Trump Is Trying to Remove Them — But the Deportation Has Not Simply Been Completed
This is another important update missing from the viral caption.
After Rubio canceled the family’s permanent-resident status and ICE detained them, the family challenged the detention and removal effort in federal court.
Associated Press reported that a federal judge temporarily blocked their deportation while the legal challenge proceeded.
Later reporting in August said the family remained in ICE custody and was still fighting removal months after the original April arrests.
So the accurate wording today is that the Trump administration is seeking to remove them — not that the entire process is already over.
This Was Part of a Broader Crackdown on Iran-Linked Residents
The Hashemi family was not the only target.
A week earlier, Rubio also terminated the permanent-resident status of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar — a niece of Qasem Soleimani — and her daughter.
In that case, the State Department went further than family association. It alleged that Afshar publicly promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks on American military personnel and facilities, praised Iran’s leadership and expressed support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designates as a foreign terrorist organization.
Rubio also terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of former Iranian security official Ali Larijani, and her husband. The State Department said both were outside the United States and barred from returning.
Taken together, the cases show a deliberate Trump administration policy: use immigration law aggressively against foreign nationals the government believes are tied to anti-American regimes or terrorist-aligned networks.
So How Much of the Viral Claim Is True?
The strongest parts are verified.
Yes, the Obama administration granted the Hashemi family visas in 2014 and permanent residency in 2016.
Yes, Marco Rubio terminated their green-card status in April 2026.
Yes, ICE detained them and the Trump administration began removal proceedings.
And yes, Rubio publicly declared that America should never become a home for “anti-American terrorists or their families.”
But the leap from that rhetoric to calling Hashemi, his wife and their son proven “Islamic terrorists” is not supported by the public record cited by the administration itself.
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The policy debate is therefore sharper than the meme version suggests: should lawful permanent residents lose their right to remain in the United States because of close family ties to officials associated with a hostile regime — even when the government has not publicly accused them of committing terrorism themselves?
That is the question the courts, the administration and ultimately American voters are being forced to confront.
