This Iranian woman's asylum victory could become a major setback for Trump
For now, a 22-year-old woman facing persecution in the Islamic Republic is safe from deportation. Next, she could win a nationwide injunction for asylum seekers.
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It was a legal victory that her father didn’t live to see.
In February, Fatemeh Tabatabaeifar completed a long and dangerous journey into the United States from Iran, where she was escaping persecution after converting from Islam to Christianity, a decision that the country’s theocratic rulers consider apostasy. She had to travel through multiple Latin American nations by car, foot, train and donkey to cross the United States border, only to face possible deportation once picked up by immigration authorities.
“Her father back in Iran was so concerned about her safety that he actually had a heart attack and passed away before she arrived in the U.S.,” her attorney Taher Kameli said in a phone interview.
On May 14, a federal judge in Arizona shielded Tabatabaeifar from deportation until her asylum claim has been completed, and she has an opportunity to prove a credible fear of persecution back home.
“A nationwide injunction can be appropriate”
First reported today by Arizona Republic reporter Jimmy Jenkins, the ruling in Tabatabaeifar’s favor could have ramifications well beyond the 22-year-old’s life.
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow, a George W. Bush appointee, invited her legal team to seek a nationwide injunction preventing the Trump administration from using his proclamation characterizing immigration as an “invasion” to deny asylum seekers their day in court. Snow seemed to indicate that such an application would have a good chance of succeeding.
“A nationwide injunction can be appropriate in the immigration law context,” the judge wrote in a 20-page order.
Trump issued his proclamation on Inauguration Day of his second term, purporting to order that “aliens engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States on or after the date of this proclamation are restricted from invoking provisions of the INA that would permit their continued presence in the United States,” including the right to seek asylum.
But Snow wrote that the president of the United States does not have that ability.
“By granting the President broad power to restrict entry into the United States, Congress did not grant the President any power to restrict an alien’s right to request asylum,” Snow’s ruling states.
The judge found that Trump likely lacks the authority to “unilaterally cancel” that right.
“The proclamation, therefore, likely lacks any statutory or constitutional authority and, resultingly, does not prevent petitioner from pursuing a final determination on her asylum claim,” Snow wrote.
Kameli told All Rise News that he also plans to ask the government to permit Tabatabaeifar’s release to relatives in California.
Trump turns his back on Iranian Christians
During his first term, Trump held a televised event inside the Oval Office on July 17, 2019 to tout his support of religious liberty.
One of the attendees was U.S. Pastor Andrew Brunson, whose release from a Turkish prison Trump secured with help from his cozy relationship with that country’s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Brunson’s prosecution abroad on bogus espionage charges made the pastor a cause célèbre among the evangelical community, and the topic turned repeatedly to Iran’s treatment of its Christian minority.
Brunson introduced Trump to Iranian Christian activist Dabrina Bet Tamraz, and Trump expressed sympathy for her story.
Trump’s posture on religious freedom looked slightly different when the cameras were off: Even then, the first Trump administration rejected more than 100 asylum applications from Iranian Christians, and one religious news outlet noticed that door closing entirely during his second term. This was despite bipartisan agreement that the persecution is real.
In 2023, the State Department’s report on International Religious Freedom had this to say about the laws of Iran: “Sharia as interpreted by the government considers conversion from Islam to be apostasy, a crime punishable by death.”
Earlier this month, Rep. Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian-American Democratic lawmaker from Arizona, introduced legislation protecting asylum seekers.
The New York Times reports that the bill, named after Iranian Christian convert Artemis Ghasemzadeh, seeks to stop the expedited removal of people fleeing a “country of concern,” a State Department designation for nations that persecute religious minorities.