U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the Biden-Harris administration released 10 illegal immigrants from Iran over a six-month period in just its New Orleans Area of Responsibility, according to data reported by the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations – Law Enforcement Systems and Analysis unit, and released this week by the Tennessee Attorney General.
The documents reveal that 10 Iranian citizens were paroled into the United States after being transferred to ICE’s New Orleans Area of Responsibility between August 2022 and January 2023. The last Iranian national released from ICE facilities is recorded in the report on February 24, 2023.
Of the 10 Iranian citizens, five were men and five were women. All were paroled, allowing them to remain in the country despite their illegal immigration status. The report does not state what criteria the Iranians fit to be paroled by the Biden-Harris administration.
The report indicates that all 10 Iranian citizens were in ICE custody under the same classification, with their cases marked “Other Immigration Violator.” None were convicted of any crimes before their release, and their cases remained ongoing when the ICE document was created.
ICE released the Iranian nationals into the United States about 18 months before intelligence officials briefed former President Donald Trump on “real and specific threats from Iran” to assassinate him in September when his campaign reported the Iranians to seek to “destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
“Big threats on my life by Iran,” wrote Trump in a September 24 post to the social media platform X. “Moves were already being made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again. Not a good situation for anyone.”
Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting. Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again. Not a good situation for anyone. I am surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before. Thank you…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2024
In October, German-owned Politico reported that Iran is accused of having a “hit list” of former Trump administration officials seeking retribution for the drone strike Trump ordered to kill Qassem Soleimani, the country’s top general, in January 2020. There is no known connection between Iran and the confirmed attempts to assassinate Trump.
Iran was additionally accused of a murder-for-hire plot against John Bolton, the former Trump administration National Security Adviser, and federal officials recently placed a $20 million bounty on information leading to the arrest of the man it charged for the crime in 2022.
Another Iranian was recently indicted on murder-for-hire charges against Iranian-American activist Masih Alinejad, a critic of the Islamic nation’s government who reportedly lives in exile in New York.
The documents were published Wednesday by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti as the result of a lawsuit Skrmetti filed after ICE divulged its plans to engage nonprofits to transport thousands of illegal immigrants to Tennessee from its Louisiana facilities to Governor Bill Lee in 2022.
Todd Bensman, the senior national security fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, recently interviewed an English-speaking Iranian national who planned to enter the United States illegally. The man specifically claimed not to be a terrorist.
“I know [Americans] think that we are terrorists, but it’s not like this. All of the Iranians are kind people, and if you come to our country, lots of people want to invite you in their house. Just our government is like this. We are not so bad people. We are not terrorists. We are kind and we have a lot of sense of humor,” the man told Bensman.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
