“Kidnapped” scare in Los Angeles suburb unravels into ICE arrest as green cards are revoked over ties to Iran’s regime
The family of Seyed Eissa Hashemi believed that her husband had been “kidnapped” when he disappeared from their Los Angeles County home on Thursday and even called the police – before ICE agents came back to take both of them into custody.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio withdrew the green cards for the son of ”Screaming Mary” Masoumeh Ebtekar, as well as his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, and their young son just week after the arrest of the niece and grandniece of the late Iranian terrorist mastermind, Gen. Qasem Soleimani.
The family were arrested just days after The Post identified them living in luxury in Agoura Hills apartment ”The Avalon” on Monday.
Hashemi, an adjunct associate professor teaching at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, had refused to denounce his notorious mother when approached after a gym workout.
He had graduated from the University of Tehran in 2006 before moving to the US in 2010 to finish his PH.D in organizational leadership from The Chicago School.
Eissa Hashemi leaving his luxe Los Angeles home on April 6, 2026, before he was arrested by ICE.CA Post
Neighbors Saturday said they had no idea of the family’s connection to the Iranian regime, and didn’t even know what country they were from.
”They were panicking because they thought he’d been kidnapped,” Neighbor Natalie told The Post about the aftermath of his arrest on Thursday.
Hashemi had left his keys but still had his phone, allowing his family to track him, neighbors said.
“They said our father disappeared and that somebody basically came and picked him up grabbed him”
Hashemi’s wife, Maryam Tahmasebi, was detained by ICE in Los Angeles alongside her son.CA Post
ICE later picked up Hashemi’s wife and son, although the details are unclear.
Hashemi’s mother, Ebtekar, “crafted propaganda falsely showing the humane treatment of the hostages, arranging staged interviews in which the American hostages were pressured to describe their treatment in positive terms – even as they were being held in solitary confinement, blindfolded and starved, and subjected to physical and psychological terror, including beatings and mock executions,” according to the State Department.
The State Department said the family’s right to live in the country was revoked in a bid to “never allow America to become a home for foreign nationals tied to anti-American terrorist regimes.”
The decision to cancel the visa follows a long-running campaign by anti-Iranian activists.
Hashemi lived in an Agoura Hills townhome before his arrest.CA Post
Eissa Hashemi and his mother, Masoumeh Ebtekar, known as “Screaming Mary,” a former official in the Iranian regime.Eissa Hashemi
In January, protestors gathered at the $20,000 a year Chicago School in Claremont, and other teaching institutions in the area with links to Hashemi, for rallies calling for him to be deported.
Organizers of Change.org petitions want Hashemi to be kicked out of the country.
One wrote: “While the mother has no regret of occupying the US embassy in Tehran, many Iranians have been affected by this action while her own son has taken advantage of living in the US.
“We want Issa Hashemi and his wife, Maryam Tahmasebi to be fired from the US as soon as possible.”
Eissa Seyed Hashemi entered the US in 2014 on an F-1 student visa.DHS/X
A poster on Instagram said: “Mr. Hashemi has never publicly distanced himself from his mother’s actions or legacy.
“I believe Eissa Hashemi’s affiliations could undermine the safety, trust, integrity, values, or commitment to human rights at an American college, warranting further examination.”
Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, the niece of Soleimani, is being held in an ICE detention center in Texas following her arrest at her Tujunga home home April 3.
Soleimani’s grandnice, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25, had been flaunting her luxe LA lifestyle and glam outfits on her social media accounts.
The US government also ended the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, daughter of top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, who was killed in a US-Israel attack last month.
She worked as an assistant professor at Emory University’s prestigious Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta.
Rep. Buddy Carter, who in a formal letter demanded her removal and argued US institutions must not serve as a “safe harbor” for individuals tied to hostile regimes.
Fatemeh and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi “are no longer in the United States and are barred from future entry,” according to the department.
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