CALIFORNIA — A federal immigration judge granted asylum to a woman who was orphaned in Iran during the 1970s, despite U.S. immigration officials initiating deportation proceedings against her earlier this year. Judge Andrew Fishkin presided over the woman's immigration case, which involved her challenge to the government's determination of her immigration status.

Judge Fishkin granted the woman refugee status and authorization to work in the United States. This asylum ruling establishes a legal pathway for the woman to be formally recognized as a U.S. citizen. The woman currently resides in California, and a federal judge authorized her to use the pseudonym Ms. S. in her legal challenge.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued the woman a letter in February, ordering her to appear for removal proceedings. The DHS letter alleged the woman was eligible for deportation for overstaying her visa in March 1974. In March 1974, the woman was four years old. She is now 56 years old.

The woman was adopted by an American war veteran and raised by her adoptive family in a Christian military household on a farm in Wisconsin. Her adoptive parents lived in Iran during the 1970s while her father worked for a U.S. government contractor. Her adoptive father retired from the U.S. Air Force with the rank of lieutenant colonel and was a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II.

The adoptive couple located the woman at an orphanage and brought her to the United States in 1973. U.S. law at the time required adoptive parents to file separate petitions to naturalize adopted children. A 1975 letter from a family attorney indicated he was working with immigration officials on the matter. The woman discovered she had not been naturalized when she applied for a U.S. passport at age 38.

Government documents incorrectly identified the woman as an alien and stated she did not speak English. English is the only language the woman speaks. Immigration officials placed a tracking ankle monitor on the woman after processing an initial arrest and collected her fingerprints and DNA samples. U.S. immigration authorities officially dispute the woman's citizenship status despite her possessing a U.S. Social Security card and a driver's license.

Attorney Emily Howe said, "Instead they treated her like a terrorist, like she was the worst of the worst criminals. It felt very Big Brother, very Orwellian." The woman filed a federal lawsuit seeking to prevent her deportation and compel the government to grant her citizenship. Judge Fishkin's ruling states that documents from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran are unavailable to claimants or the government.