“He has not been arrested for any crime, nor has he participated in any anti-government protests. He is legally present in the U.S., pursuing his American dream by working towards his doctorate in mechanical engineering,” Rozas said.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that immigration officials acted on the State Department’s visa revocation.
“This individual posed significant national security concerns,” the department said. Officials declined to elaborate when asked why he is considered a threat. Rozas said he has not been informed of any allegations of security issues involving Doroudi.
Carl Shusterman, a Los Angeles immigration attorney not involved in the case, said it has become “fairly common” in recent years for students to have their visas revoked, perhaps for a crime like driving under the influence. The revocation prohibits them from re-entering the country but they may stay if they remain students.
Doroudi was being held at the Pickens County Jail in Carrollton, Alabama, and was to be sent to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Jena, Louisiana, a town of about 5,000 people far from any major city.
Doroudi's is the latest in a string of immigration arrests involving college students, several of whom are being held in rural Louisiana, which became a detention hub during President Donald Trump's first term.
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on Friday to move their client's case out of the Jena detention center, describing his imprisonment there as a "Kafkaesque" ploy to chill free speech.
Also Friday, lawyers for Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, renewed a legal bid challenging her detention by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on Tuesday. Ozturk, 30, was moved to an ICE detention center in remote Basile, Louisiana, before a federal judge ordered her to be kept in Massachusetts.
Trump has yet to deliver on campaign pledges of mass deportations but, while the numbers may not be so striking, his administration's targets and methods mark a major break from his predecessors', including his own practices during his first term. He invoked a rarely-used wartime powers act to send hundreds of Venezuelans to prison in El Salvador.
Agents from ICE's Homeland Security Investigations unit knocked on Doroudi's door at 3 a.m. Tuesday. His attorney said his client thought it was a home invasion.
“All we’ve been informed is that ICE notified him at the jail and said, ’Hey, you are a citizen of Iran. Because of the long period from the time of revocation, we don’t believe that you should stay here. And he is like, ‘I’m in school.’ And they were like,” Well, show us proof that you’ve been in school, and you can show that to the court,’” Rozas said.
Neighbors who didn't want to be identified told The Associated Press they were awoken by the knock and and felt terrified as they witnessed the arrest.
The University of Alabama confirmed that a student was detained off campus by immigration authorities.
“International students studying at the University are valued members of the campus community," the school said in a statement. “UA has and will continue to follow all immigration laws and cooperate with federal authorities.”
Doroudi has an immigration hearing in early April, according to his attorney, who worries that Doroudi’s inability to attend school will result in his loss of student status. Publicly available Alabama court records show he was cited for speeding/reckless driving in November 2023 but no other legal entanglements.
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Chandler reported from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press writer Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.