Iran has strongly denounced Washington’s policies toward Iranian nationals entering the United States, saying such cases can be prosecuted through the human rights bodies.
“The illegal and inhumane treatment of the US border guards with Iranians is a blatant violation of human rights, which can be prosecuted through human rights bodies,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday.
“Such discriminatory measures, which are merely taken based on people’s race, nationality and some times religion, are categorically rejected by human rights principles and will lay heavy responsibility on the US government,” he added.
Mousavi further rebuked the US border security’s secondary political and religious questions from the Iranian travelers as well as unpermitted access to their social media accounts, saying such an act is a clear example of inquisition, which is also condemned by the human rights law.
Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein Abadi, an Iranian student, who had a valid F-1 US student visa, was deported from the United States last week in spite of a federal court order to delay his removal.
He arrived in Boston on January 19 to continue his studies at Northeastern University but was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the Boston Logan International Airport.
The 24-year-old economics student was held for secondary questioning, which is common for Iranians when entering the US through the airport, according to his lead attorney Kerry Doyle.
According to court documents and his attorneys, Dehghani went through a thorough vetting process with the US government that lasted one year before he obtained his visa. He had studied at the university for two semesters, left the US, and then was finally approved to return last week.
The student “does not pose any threat of terrorist activity and has no criminal record in any country,” his attorneys said in a court filing. “It is unclear why [Customs and Border Protection] would now decide, after conducting a full visa issuance process, that Plaintiff’s student visa should be revoked.”
