- Why is ICE arresting Iranian nationals?
- What are my rights as an Iranian American?
- I need legal support for an immigration issue. Where can I get legal help?
- ICE arrested somebody in my life and I don’t know where they are. What can I do?
- I want to be prepared in case of ICE raids or arrests. What should I do?
- I heard that Trump is trying to end birthright citizenship. What does this mean?
- I heard about Trump efforts to denaturalize U.S. citizens. What is denaturalization, and can it happen to me?
برای خواندن این مطلب به فارسی اینجا را کلیک کنید
In the wake of a disturbing spike in racially motivated immigration arrests, deportations, and other Trump efforts to attack the immigration rights of Iranian Americans living in the U.S., we have created this FAQ for Iranian Americans focused on knowing your rights at home in the U.S., immigrant defense and preparedness. We will update it to respond to current events as able.
National Iranian American Council stands ready to help impacted Iranian Americans connect to legal defense, congressional representatives, community networks, media and more – reach us with help or questions at [email protected].
Note: For resources and FAQs on Trump’s latest travel ban, visit our Travel Ban FAQ here.
Why is ICE arresting Iranian nationals?
To begin with, Trump is pursuing an aggressive and racially motivated deportation agenda against people of all backgrounds. CBS reports that average daily ICE arrests have surged from 660 in President Trump’s first 100 days to 1,200 in June – with the White House publicly targeting 3,000 arrests per day across immigrant communities.
To reach these aggressive quotas, the Trump administration has stepped up enforcement against thousands of Americans of all backgrounds for very minor, low-level or no actual offenses under criminal or civil law – most famously, like the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in the Palestinian rights movement and legal permanent resident with no offenses who has since been released following a court order. This has included everyday Iranian Americans like Alireza Doroudi, a University of Alabama doctoral student who tragically decided to self-deport after weeks in ICE detention with no legitimate stated government charges against him. These deeply concerning examples expose the racially and politically motivated nature of Trump’s immigration crackdowns.
In recent days, we have seen a nationwide increase in arrests of Iranian nationals, with at least 130 Iranian nationals arrested in the week following illegal U.S. military strikes on Iran. This is an example of how hostilities abroad expand racially motivated attacks on us at home. The senselessness of many of these arrests is illustrated in cases like Donna Kashanian, a 64-year-old Iranian American woman with no criminal record who has lived in the U.S. for over 40 years and was arrested by ICE at her New Orleans home while gardening.
National Iranian American Council strongly condemns these broad and unjust enforcement actions. We know that these attacks are partly meant to stoke fear and panic in our communities. The surest ways to defend yourself if you are concerned about immigration enforcement are to know your rights and seek legal support or guidance if you are unsure about your situation.
What are my rights as an Iranian American?
Whether you are a U.S. citizen or not, you still have certain rights as an Iranian American under the Constitution. While this is a scary and stressful time, the most important thing you can do is to remain calm, know your rights and live your normal daily life as much as you can.
At home: All persons in the U.S. have certain rights in their homes against law enforcement, regardless of citizenship or status. If ICE asks to enter your home, you have the right to refuse them entry unless they can produce a valid warrant to enter signed by a judge.
- This printable card from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in Farsi/Persian and English lays out your rights and how to exercise them if ICE comes to your door.
- Know what a valid warrant looks like.
- A valid warrant will have 1) the words “U.S. District Court” or the name of a state court on the top, 2) List your name, the name of someone who lives in your home, or your home address, and 3) Be signed by a state, federal, or magistrate judge. Look for a signature. Also check if the signor’s title includes the word “Judge.” Only a judge — and NOT an “Immigration Judge” — can sign this type of warrant.
- If the warrant says DHS at the top instead of a court entity, AND/OR is signed by an immigration agent or immigration judge, it is NOT a valid warrant and you do NOT have to let them into your home.
At work, school, on the street, or in another public place: If you are stopped outside of your home by immigration agents, you still have rights –
- You have the right to remain silent under the 5th Amendment and not answer their questions. You can hand this Know Your Rights card from National Immigration Law Center to the arresting officers indicating you are exercising your rights, or just tell them you are exercising your right to remain silent.
- Stay calm. Do not run away or try to stop the agents.
- If you can, record what is happening on your phone or ask someone else to do it.
- Ask them what government agency they are from while recording.
- If they ask you questions, say “I am using my right to remain silent.”
- Ask: “Am I free to leave?” If they say yes, walk away calmly.
For even more information on your rights if you are facing arrest or detention, feel free to review this guide from the National Immigration Law Center.
When traveling: Our 2025 Travel Ban Center includes comprehensive resources for knowing your rights while leaving and entering the country, including:
- IABA’s Know Your Rights: Citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents Re-Entering the U.S. (English) (فارسی)
- ACLU’s Know Your Rights: Law Enforcement at the Airport, in Persian and English
- ACLU’s Know Your Rights: What to do with anti-Immigrant and anti-Muslim discrimination, in Persian and English
- ACLU’s Know Your Rights: Can Border Agents search for electronic devices? Available in English here
- ACLU’s Know Your Rights: What to do if you think you’re on a No Fly List, available in English here.
I need legal support for an immigration issue. Where can I get legal help?
We have compiled a list of attorneys with familiarity working with the Iranian American community and you are welcome to reach out to them – scroll to the “Get Support” section of our Travel Ban Center.
ICE arrested somebody in my life and I don’t know where they are. What can I do?
If you are in this painful and unfortunate situation, you can first learn about how to look up detainee information using this helpful guide from the National Immigration Law Center.
You can also reach out to your Member of Congress’s office who can conduct inter-agency requests for information on your behalf. National Iranian American Council can also help you connect to your Member’s office; though we cannot get information on your behalf due to privacy laws, we can and do support people in reaching their U.S. Reps for help. Reach out to us at [email protected] for assistance with this if desired.
I want to be prepared in case of ICE raids or arrests. What should I do?
These are things you can do in addition to knowing your rights:
Make a family preparedness plan: If/when people are arrested by ICE, it sets off a chain reaction that destabilizes households and entire communities. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center offers this resource for making a plan ahead of time as a family in case one of your relatives is at risk of arrest by ICE. While it is painful to have to even contemplate this scenario, if the worst happens, this preparedness can ensure the situation is not even worse.
Learn about community defense against ICE: Nationally, immigrant rights groups across the country have organized rapid response trainings and resources to help communities be better equipped to defend against raids. This live toolkit from Detention Watch Network provides examples of best practices for communities to get organized and defend against raids.
Connect with other Iranian Americans near you and organize: National Iranian American Council is a membership organization of nearly 70,000 Iranian Americans across the country united against discrimination and for the rights of our fellow Iranian Americans. Get connected to NIAC chapter near you by reaching out to our Organizing Team (Myriam Sabbaghi, [email protected] and Etan Mabourakh, [email protected]).
I heard that Trump is trying to end birthright citizenship. What does this mean?
Birthright citizenship is still the law of the land and the United States Constitution. As of July 10, a federal judge blocked Trump from applying his birthright citizenship order nationwide in response to a class action lawsuit brought by ACLU and Asian Law Caucus, in a victory that affirms this constitutional right. Birthright citizenship is the constitutional right of people born in the U.S. to automatically being U.S. citizens, even if they were born to non-citizen parents.
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution clearly states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” It dates back to 1868 after the U.S. Civil War, and was ratified by Congress to ensure that formerly enslaved African Americans were fully recognized with legal rights as U.S. citizens.
Thirty years later, Wong Kim Ark, a man born in the U.S. to Chinese parents, was refused re-entry into the U.S. after traveling overseas. He sued the government, and his suit led to the Supreme Court explicitly ruling that the amendment gives citizenship to anyone born in the U.S., no matter their parents’ legal status.
Donald Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship are not just an attack on the U.S. Constitution, but on the very fabric of American society and the many millions of Americans who are U.S. born and citizens by birth, including countless Iranian Americans going back generations.
On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled on Trump’s executive order trying to undo birthright citizenship by stating that federal judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, meaning that efforts underway to block the order could not be applied nationwide. The Supreme Court did not fully approve Trump’s executive action, but it did not overturn it either.
As of July 10, the order has been blocked nationwide by a federal judge. Other cases also challenging the executive order will get sent back to the lower courts, leaving it to those judges to decide how to tailor their orders to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
While it remains to be seen what if anything happens with those, for now birthright citizenship is protected. States attorneys general from at least 22 states who brought the challenges to the executive order have also vowed to fight it to the end.
For even more detailed answers to your questions on this issue, Asian Law Caucus has an FAQ resource here, and is leading a class-action lawsuit against the executive order to continue to fight back nationwide. We will keep you updated.
We will continue to monitor this issue and update the community as needed.
I heard about Trump efforts to denaturalize U.S. citizens. What is denaturalization, and can it happen to me?
Denaturalization is the process of revoking citizenship from U.S. citizens. Another attack on Iranian Americans’ rights during this time is Trump’s efforts to denaturalize U.S. citizens.
On June 11, 2025, the Trump Administration issued a directive to begin efforts to denaturalize U.S. citizens who meet an expanded range of criteria, and on June 30 they announced plans to pursue its implementation.
The June 11 memo lists criteria it intends to use to pursue civil litigation against individuals in order to revoke their citizenship. The criteria includes dangerously broad language like “Cases against individuals who pose a potential danger to national security,” alongside other more basic criteria like fraud or misrepresentation of one’s citizenship case.
Like so many of the other immigration enforcement actions outlined in this FAQ, while the stated public purpose of this policy is to guarantee national safety, in practice this directive can be used to target Iranian Americans and other U.S. citizens in racially and politically motivated ways. This has played out before in history, when during the late 1940s and early 1950s the United States government pursued witch hunts against people for their political beliefs in the era known as McCarthyism.
If you are an Iranian American U.S. citizen and concerned you may become a target for denaturalization under the new criteria or otherwise, please feel free to either reach out to us at [email protected] with questions and needs, or consult with an immigration attorney (some options listed above) for a formal legal review of your situation.