The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants and people seeking refugee status is continuing with news that two Iranian gay men are set to be deported back to the country which includes the death penalty for homosexual activity.
Lawyers for the couple say they were previously arrested for in Iran in 2021 for what authorities described as homosexual activity. The punishment can range from flogging to execution. The two men, aged in their 30s and 40s, were released while awaiting trial and fled the country.
They eventually made their way to the USA to seek asylum, but have now been taken into custody and face deportation back to Iran.
Rebekah Wolf, a staff attorney with the American Immigration Council who represents them, has told The Advocate that the couple are genuine refugee cases.
“They are textbook asylum cases,” Wolf said in an interview on Saturday afternoon. “People from a country where who they are is criminalized and punishable by torture or death — that is literally the definition of an asylum seeker.”
The men entered the USA at it’s southern border to apply for asylum, but have been kept in custody for over a year, and now they’re facing deportation. They arrived with a woman who was also seeking refugee status.
The woman, whom Wolf represented during her immigration proceedings, was granted asylum after a brief 45-minute hearing. The men’s cases took a drastically different turn and they have been ordered to be deported. Late on Friday an appeals court granted a stay for one of the men, but the other has not yet been given any protection, and there has been recent cases of even people who have been given an appeal still being deported.
Last year Venezuelan man Andry Hernández Romero was sent from the USA to a harsh prison in Columbia, despite being granted asylum in the USA. He was eventually freed in a prisoner swap, and returned to his homeland.
Second US citizen killed by ICE agents in Milwaukee
Today nurse Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed during an altercation with federal ICE agents. Video shows the nurse being surrounded by officers and shot at close range.
His death follows that of Renee Nicole Good who was shot in the face and killed during an altercation with an ICE agent earlier this month. The administration quickly labeled the mother of three a “domestic terrorist”.
The US Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been focusing its efforts to detect and capture people who are in the country unlawfully on the city of Minneapolis.
Not long after Petti was killed authorities said he had come at officers while armed with a weapon, and US President DOnald Trump has referred to him as a “gunman”.
Video footage published by The New York Times shows he was holding a phone.
The Department of Homeland Security had said that the nurse “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9-mm semi-automatic handgun” through they did not specify if it was simply on his person. Petti was carrying a fire arm, which had a permit for, but he did not appear to have drawn it at officers.
Analysis of the video that has emerged indicated that two officers shot Pretti at close range with at least 10 shots being fired over a five second period. They shots occurred after another officer had removed Pretti’s pistol.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has commented on the killing saying Pretti could not be considered a peaceful protestor if he was armed.
“I don’t know any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition, rather than a sign. This is a violent riot. We have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers.” she said on Sunday.
That drew a swift rebuke from Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who noted that the Republican lawmakers had previously praised Kylie Rittenhouse who in 2020 as a 17-year-old shot three protestors in Wisconsin. He was acquitted of homicide charges after successfully arguing he had acted in self-defense.
“How rich is it that she is saying showing up to the scene of a protest with a legally owned weapon should be grounds for a person’s death, execution at the hands of the state, by the same party and the same administration that praises Kyle Rittenhouse.” Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez said.
Democratic governor of California Gavin Newsome has called on Noem to resign and US border partrol official Gregory Bovino, who has spearheaded the campaign, to be fired.
Borvino had described the incident as “a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Pretti’s family have released a statement saying that they are heartbroken and angry regarding the response from the Trump administration.
“The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the family statement said. “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man.”
