LOS ANGELES — The U.S. State Department detained five Iranian nationals based in the Los Angeles area and moved to strip them of their U.S. residency. The five are green card holders.

Among those detained are Seyed Eissa Hashemi, Maryam Tahmasebi and their son Seyed Mobin Hashemi, who were taken into custody by immigration authorities in early April. Hashemi and Tahmasebi, residents of Agoura Hills, are psychology professors. An online petition that preceded the family's detention gathered more than 140,000 signatures, with many signatories identifying themselves as members of the Iranian diaspora in the United States, Australia or other countries.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said the Obama administration granted visas to the detained family members and that they have been lawful permanent residents since June 2016. Sarina Hosseiny, a 25-year-old student at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, is being held in an immigration detention facility in Texas alongside her 47-year-old mother.

Threatening comments on social media claimed that Hosseiny and her mother were relatives of Qassem Suleimani and terrorists who should be deported. "They were sending me death threats. Literally saying like, they were gonna find me and kill me and my mom and all this stuff," Hosseiny said. "All I've ever posted is that I was against war and just innocent people dying."

Los Angeles is home to the largest concentration of people of Iranian descent outside Iran, many of whom fled after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Some members of the local community have opposed other Iranian Americans who expressed antiwar opinions, interpreting those views as support for the Iranian government. A segment of the community collaborated with Trump-aligned far-right conservatives, including Laura Loomer, in campaigns against other Iranian Americans. A San Diego-based mommy influencer posted on Instagram urging her followers to contact Loomer to arrange the deportation of supporters of the Islamic Republic. Online petitions described family members of current or former Iranian officials as living luxuriously in the United States while ordinary Iranians face repression in Iran.

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said some of the sentiment against Iranian Americans stems from grievances about corruption in Iran, such as a banker who embezzled millions and then fled to Canada. Abdi said rumors have been used to suppress voices opposing U.S. and Israeli military actions in Iran and have been exploited by the Trump administration to demonstrate strength domestically during the war.

"This witch hunt has become really pervasive, and it's not new," Abdi said. "What seems to be new is there's an administration who is willing and eager to entertain this McCarthyism and actually punish people based on what the mob is calling for."