LOS ANGELES — A federal judge temporarily barred the U.S. government from deporting Los Angeles resident Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their son after the family filed petitions challenging the legality of their detention. The State Department revoked the family's green cards in April over their familial tie to Masoumeh Ebtekar, Hashemi's mother and a central figure in the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in Tehran.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to strip the green cards in April, and the Department of Homeland Security sought to deport the family. The three have been held in immigration facilities in Texas since their arrest in early April in Los Angeles. DHS said authorities believe the family poses a threat to national security and U.S. foreign policy but did not answer questions about the nature of the alleged threat.

The Trump administration is invoking a provision of immigration law that allows the Secretary of State to remove immigrants for foreign policy reasons. The same provision was invoked in the arrest of student activist Mahmoud Khalil. The law has not been fully tested by the courts.

"There's no specific allegations related to these three individuals other than their familial relationship," said Curtis Morrison, the family's lawyer. Tahmasebi said, "There is not an ounce of violence or any type of menace in either of us."

State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said people with close ties to senior Iranian officials associated with anti-U.S. activities should not be allowed to live in the United States. "Allowing such individuals to remain in the United States could be exploited by the Iranian government for propaganda or political messaging and would undercut U.S. efforts to deter malign activities by signaling that regime-affiliated networks can continue to access U.S. privileges without consequence," Pigott said. He did not provide any examples or evidence related to the family's case.

Ebtekar, known as "Sister Mary" in the American news media during the embassy takeover for wearing a black robe and headscarf resembling a nun's habit, listed American "crimes" against Iran, condemned the hostages as "spies" to be prosecuted, and demanded the United States turn over the deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. She later joined politicians seeking to reform Iran's theocracy and became the Islamic Republic's first female Cabinet member.

The couple left Iran more than a decade ago to pursue graduate studies in the United States and later obtained green cards through a government lottery. Tahmasebi taught psychology and statistics at a community college, and Hashemi taught at a private university.

"Our assumption was as long as we abided by all rules and laws we would be safe," Tahmasebi said. She described the family as middle class with "absolutely no ties to money or power" and said, "The only thing we have wanted is for our son to have a normal life."

The State Department has also moved to revoke the green cards of the niece and grand-niece of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad in early 2020. Court records show the government had a deadline to respond to the family's petitions in Texas.