A Los Angeles family spent months in an immigration detention center in Texas, fighting a never-ending battle against the U.S.government — not for something they did, but because of who they’re related to.The mother wrote a letter highlighting what her lawyers are calling “bloodline punishment.” They say they haven’t seen a case like this where a couple and their son were detained for something that their relative did before any of them were even born.The husband’s mother was a spokesperson for the group that took Americans hostage during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.
The State Department is using that connection to detain the family for more than 120 days.“We are in tremendous pain and have been trapped in an unendurable, unending nightmare,” family friend Jacob Hart said, reading a letter written by Maryam Tahmasebi that was published in online magazine The Nation.“Imagine that you are an independent woman wading through the waters of sexism and patriarchy every day, and then you are told that not only do your own ideas and academic achievements not matter, but you are somehow now responsible for decisions you never made, and for things that happened before you were even born,” the letter continued.Maryam, a professor at Los Angeles Pierce College, her husband Eissa, who is also an educator, and their 16-year-old son — all permanent residents of the U.S.— were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April, and their green cards were revoked.The South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley in January.
Brenda BazánMaryam and her son were taken to the Dilley detention center in Texas, while her husband is being held at another nearby facility.Maryam and her son are only able to speak to Eissa over the phone for 10 minutes every two weeks.“What struck me was this seemed to be the first time that the foreign policy ground was being used to target people based not on any conduct of theirs whatsoever, but based solely on fam...