Petitioners Call for Investigation and Deportation of Eissa Hashemi in Los Angeles

Eissa Hashemi, the 43-year-old son of a former high-ranking Iranian official, is facing public calls for investigation and deportation while residing in Los Angeles. Petitioners argue that This proves unjust for relatives of the hardline Islamist regime in Iran to enjoy Western freedoms and an affluent lifestyle while their government suppresses its own citizens.

Hashemi is the son of Masoumeh Ebtekar, who served as the spokesperson for the hostage-takers during the 1979 U.S. Embassy occupation in Tehran. During that crisis, more than 50 Americans were held captive for over a year. Ebtekar also held the formal position of Iran’s Vice President of Women and Family Affairs from 2017 to 2021.

Reports from the New York Post describe Hashemi’s life in Los Angeles as affluent. Photos obtained by Fox News Digital show Hashemi at a fancy gym in the city, where he reportedly dismissed questions from a reporter. In addition to his residence in California, Hashemi is employed as an adjunct psychology professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Broader Context of Iranian Officials’ Relatives in the U.S.

The controversy surrounding Hashemi follows similar recent actions taken against other relatives of Iranian leadership living in the United States. The U.S. State Department recently revoked the green cards of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, 47, and her daughter, Sarinasadat Hosseiny, 25.

Afshar and Hosseiny are the niece and grandniece, respectively, of the late Iranian terror mastermind Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 U.S. Airstrike. Following the revocation of their legal residency, federal immigration officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took both women into custody.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Afshar has been an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime, celebrated attacks on Americans, and referred to the United States as the Great Satan.

Sheila Nazarian, who fled Iran as a child, criticized the lifestyle of Soleimani’s relatives, noting that they shared images on social media wearing bikinis and v-neck dresses and spending time on yachts. Nazarian stated that such attire could lead to severe penalties within Iran and alleged that these individuals are living on blood money embezzled from the Iranian people.

These women are posting in bikinis, on yachts, they are wearing v-neck dresses down to their bellybuttons, they are wannabee Instagram influencers. All on the blood money – money that was embezzled, stolen from the Iranian people. And there’s thousands of them, not just two, there’s thousands in the U.S. And in Canada and in London

Sheila Nazarian via Fox News

The case of Eissa Hashemi and the arrests of the Soleimani relatives highlight a growing tension regarding the presence of family members of Iranian regime officials and IRGC commanders within Western societies. Critics argue that these individuals embed themselves in countries whose governments their relatives regularly denounce and fight against.

Hashemi’s professional background included a LinkedIn profile in 2015, which has since been deleted, as reported by U.S. Media outlets.