It turns out that an Iranian student who was recently denied entry upon his arrival in the U.S. and was subsequently deported has some pretty shady ties, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who spoke to Fox News. That the deported student has such problematic links — to Iran’s murderous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Iranian regime’s Lebanon-based Hezbollah proxy, in particular — ought to serve as a wakeup call for the Democratic Party officials, left-wing activists, and open-borders advocates who trotted out the normal hue and cry upon the student’s denial and deportation.
“An Iranian student who was denied entry to the United States on arrival and deported this week, amid objections from top Democrats and left-wing activists, has family ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, a Department of Homeland Security official told Fox News,” the outlet reported.
“Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein was denied entry to the U.S. and detained on Sunday when he arrived on a student visa at Boston Logan International Airport,” Fox News continued. “His detention sparked outrage from activists, who flooded the airport demanding his release. It also drew objections from Northeastern University, where [Hossein Abadi] was due to be enrolled, and the American Civil Liberties Union.”
Some very prominent Democrats, such as 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), responded indignantly. Warren, taking up Hossein Abadi’s cause, casually accused President Donald Trump’s administration of “xenophobia[a].”
“Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education,” Warren tweeted. “[U.S. Customs and Border Protection] already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration’s xenophobic policies.”
Shahab Dehghani is an Iranian student with a valid F1 visa, returning to finish his education. CBP already held him overnight. His deportation must be halted, and we must fight the Trump administration's xenophobic policies. https://t.co/ZCKVo5fwvM
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) January 21, 2020
A judge in Massachusetts had initially stayed Hossein Abadi’s deportation, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) then promptly executed his deportation. CBP issued a statement on the incident, as reported by Insider Higher Ed.
“Every applicant for admission is subject to inspection upon arrival in the United States,” CBP said. “The issuance of a visa or participation in the visa waiver program does not guarantee entry to the United States. Upon arrival at Logan Airport on Sunday, January 19, [Hossein Abadi] was deemed inadmissible and processed for expedited removal and return to his place of departure. During today’s hearing, the court ruled that the matter is now moot as the subject was never admitted into the United States, the subject is no longer in custody, and the court does not have jurisdiction to order his return.”
Hossein Abadi had first applied for a U.S. visa in 2018 and “[h]is visa was granted approximately a week ago,” Insider Higher Ed reported. But the DHS official who spoke to Fox News told the outlet that “the case was more complicated than some were letting on, and that there were legitimate reasons for rejecting [Hossein Abadi]” — in other words, his ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, the Iran-funded and -trained proxy militia that has all but overrun Lebanon, is uniquely poised to cause immense trouble for Israel. As I explained last month in a Daily Wire op-ed calling for the full defunding of all U.S. taxpayer foreign aid to Lebanon:
Bear in mind that Hezbollah currently maintains scores of Iranian-funded, precision-guided missiles currently stationed in southern Lebanon and aimed straight at the hearts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel’s next war — and it is a matter of when, not if — with Hezbollah is going to be a long, bloody mess. And foreign aid to Israel aside, the U.S. taxpayer presently also funds the horrifically wrong side of that inevitable war.