An Iranian army sniper and a suspected terrorist with ties to Hezbollah are among illegal migrants living in the US who have been arrested by ICE since Sunday.
Ribvar Karimi, who served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021, was arrested in rural Alabama, where he has been living with his American wife.
When ICE agents found in him in the town of Locust Fork Sunday, he had an Islamic Republic of Iran Army identification card, DHS claimed.
Karimi entered the country legally on a K-1 visa, for foreigners engaged to be married to Americans, in October under the Biden administration.
He married his bride, Morgan Gardener, in January this year. However, Karimi failed to adjust his status, making his presence in the US illegal.
In Minnesota, agents nabbed Mehran Makari Saheli, 56, a former member of off the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with admitted connections to Hezbollah, according to the Department of Homeland Security today.
He already had a conviction for felon in possession of a firearm and served 15 months in prison.
On June 22, ICE Atlanta arrested Ribvar Karimi in Locust, Alabama. Karimi reportedly served as an Iranian Army sniper from 2018 to 2021
Mehran Makari Saheli, 56, is a former member of off the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with admitted connections to Hezbollah, ICE claimed
Karimi married American citizen Morgan Gardener in January of this year
Despite being ordered out of the country by a judge in June 28, 2022, he evaded authorities.
Both men are now in ICE custody pending removal.
Karimi’s American wife insists he loves America and is a proud immigrant.
‘This man loves America, the first purchase he made when he got here was an American Flag,’ Morgan Gardner told a local station.
‘If he was here on bad intentions, he wouldn’t have done that, he wouldn’t be willing to walk around with a flag, knowing he could get deported and sent back to a country where he could be killed for that.’
She is seven months pregnant with their first child and fears she’ll have to give birth alone.
Also arrested over the weekend was Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand, who had been ordered to leave the US 12 years ago by an immigration judge.
He had also been convicted of threatening a law enforcement officer and being an alien in possession of a firearm.
Eidivand entered through the southern border in June 2012, DHS said, and he was arrested in Tempe, Arizona Sunday.
Armed with a 9mm pistol when ICE agents caught up to him, Behzad Sepehrian Bahary Nejad was arrested in Texas.
After entering the US on a student visa in 2016, Sepehrian was arrested a year later in the Houston area for choking a family member.
His wife was able to get a retraining order against him after he threatened her and family back in Iran.
The University of Texas student was ordered out of the country in 2019.
Another man with suspected ties to terror was taken into custody in Mississippi.
American woman Linet Vartaniann (L) was also arrested for threatening to shoot ICE agents in Arizona. Mahmoud Shafiei (R) was arrested in Colorado
Yousef Mehridehno (L) was arrested in Mississippi. Mehrdad Mehdipour (R) was arrested in
Hamid Reza Bayat (L) and Bahman Alizadeh Asfestani (R)
Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand (L) Behzad Sepehrian Bahary Nejad (R) were also arrested
Yousef Mehridehno had been stripped of his lawful permanent resident status in October 2017, and allowed to remain in the US during Trump’s first term, after authorities learned he had lied on his application.
Additional apprehensions were made Houston, Colorado, San Fransisco and San Diego.
Aside from the 11 Iranians arrested, an American woman Linet Vartaniann was also arrested for threatening to shoot ICE agents in Arizona.
The arrests come as it’s been revealed at least 1,500 Iranians entered the US during the Biden years.
The apprehensions have taken place since Sunday in sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, amid growing warnings about potential terrorist ‘sleeper cells’ targeting the US.
President Donald Trump warned there could be Iranian terrorist sleeper cells plotting against Americans.
‘And among everything else, (Biden) let in a lot of super cells, many from Iran,’ the Republican wrongly said, meaning sleeper cells.
Over the weekend, Department of Homeland Security agents went ‘full throttle,’ arresting citizens of the Islamic republic as that country threatened to retaliate against the US following the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran.
‘Under Secretary (Kristi) Noem, DHS 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,’ DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release Tuesday.
‘We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out—and we are.’
At least half of them were allowed to stay in the US, despite citizens of Iran being considered special interest aliens due to the possibility of being security threats.
