An Alabama woman married to an Iranian immigrant says her family regrets supporting President Donald Trump and his aggressive immigration policies after ICE detained her husband over the weekend as part of a recent round-up of Iranian nationals.
“We believed in his [Trump’s] immigration policies and were completely blindsided and truly believed that only criminals were being detained,” Morgan Gardner told Newsweek.
Gardner’s husband, Ribvar Karimi, was one of 11 Iranian nationals arrested Sunday and taken into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security claimed the arrests reflect its “commitment to keeping known and suspected terrorists out of American communities.”
DHS has painted Karimi as a threat to national security, saying he served as a sniper in the Iranian army from 2018 to 2021 and had an Islamic Republic of Iran army identification card.
Military service is compulsory in Iran for all men aged 18–49. Draft evaders face prosecution and may lose their social benefits and civil rights, including employment, education and the ability to leave the country. Deserters face imprisonment.
