An Iranian mother detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers has been released this week following advocacy from Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian, 64, was detained by ICE officers last month as she gardened in the yard of her New Orleans home. She had been living in the United States for 47 years and her husband and daughter are both US citizens.
Ms Kashanian had been allowed to stay in the US as long as she checked in regularly with immigration authorities, as she had done without fail, her family and attorney said.
After a surge of community support for Ms Kashanian, Mr Scalise, who represents Louisiana's First Congressional District, including the New Orleans suburbs, told media outlet WDSU that he asked the Department of Homeland Security to give Kashanian “a fair shake”.
Mr Scalise said Ms Kashanian should be judged on “her life’s work” and role in her community.
“When she was picked up, we looked at it and said, ‘Are they really looking at it the right way, objectively?’” Mr Scalise told WDSU. “And so they took a second look at it.”
Mr Scalise’s intervention was “absolutely crucial” to behind-the-scenes advocacy to secure Ms Kashanian’s release, her attorney Ken Mayeaux told The Associated Press. What happens next for Ms Kashanian's legal status is still being worked out, he added.
Mr Scalise’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The AP.
Ms Kashanian had been a “devoted mother and wife, a caretaker, neighbour and dedicated volunteer” with Habitat for Humanity, her local school district and other organizations, said Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, a Republican who represents Ms Kashanian’s community.
More than 100 of Ms Kashanian’s neighbours wrote letters of support for her, which Ms Hilferty told AP she and Mr Scalise had shared with President Donald Trump’s administration.
“She’s just been an incredible volunteer and servant to our Lakeview community, everybody knows her because of all she gives and does,” said Connie Uddo, a neighbour of Ms Kashanian’s who leads the NOLA Tree Project where Ms Kashanian and husband have volunteered for years.
Some neighbors wrote letters addressed to Trump expressing support for his immigration policies but saying that some people like Ms Kashanian were being detained improperly and urging him to reconsider her case.
Ms Kashanian had arrived in the US in 1978 on a student visa and unsuccessfully applied for asylum based on her father's support of the US-backed shah.
ICE New Orleans said in a June post on X that Ms Kashanian had failed to depart the US after the Board of Immigration Appeals upheld a deportation order in 1992.
“She was ordered by a judge to depart the US and didn’t,” the agency said. “Shouldn’t be a surprise we came knocking.”
But Ms Kashanian was allowed to remain with her husband and child as long as she checked in regularly with immigration authorities, her family said. For decades, she had “faithfully and fully complied with those terms,” said Mr Mayeaux, her attorney. She even managed to check in with authorities while displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Russell Milne, Ms Kashanian’s husband, told AP his family was “extremely grateful” for all the support from their community and elected officials.
Ms Kashanian met her husband while bartending as a student in the late 1980s. She volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, filmed Persian cooking tutorials on YouTube and doted on the neighboring children.
“She’s meeting her obligations,” Mr Milne told AP following her detention. “She’s retirement age. She’s not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?”
The US Department of Homeland Security did not immediately provide comment on Ms Kashanian’s release.
Other Iranians living in the US for decades have also been picked up by immigration authorities, and US military strikes on Iran have raised concerns that more may be taken into custody and deported. Iran was one of 12 countries subject to a US travel ban that took effect this month.
Immigration authorities are seeking to arrest 3,000 people a day under directives from the Trump administration.
Ms Kashanian's attorney Mr Mayeaux said he represents other clients who had built lives in the US over decades and are now being detained and deported.
“There is still a tremendous amount of heartache that is happening for people,” Mr Mayeaux said. "The difference is they lived quiet lives and didn’t have access to political power to change the outcomes in their cases."
