Stony Brook University Student's Iranian Parents Detained At JFK For 30 Hours

JOHN F. KENNEDY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NY — Sahar, a recent Stony Brook University graduate whose Iranian parents flew into JFK to visit her this weekend, showed up to the airport Saturday morning with the hope of hugging and kissing her mom and dad after three years of separation.

Instead, 32-year-old Sahar was informed by federal agents that her parents had been taken into custody — and would be forced to return to Iran on the next available flight.

"They won't allow me to see them," she said. "I haven't seen them in years. I just want to see them, just for one minute. Just behind a window — anything."

UPDATE, Sunday, 4 p.m.: Yesterday evening, a federal judge in Brooklyn temporarily halted Trump's Muslim immigration ban. Nearly 20 hours after the ban was halted, Sahar's parents were finally freed from detention at JFK. The family hugged and cried in the Terminal 4 arrivals hall Sunday afternoon. "Thank you to all the lawyers," Sahar said, waving to a group of volunteer attorneys as she walked her parents out of Terminal 4. Unfortunately, though, a handful of other immigrants were still detained Sunday at JFK.

Trump signed an executive order Friday that bans people from certain countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days. The countries were not named in the order, but several news outlets reported them as Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Iran, Yemen and Sudan. The order also indefinitely suspends the entry of Syrian refugees and bans the resettlement of refugees from any country for four months.

Vahideh Rasekhi, another Stony Brook University student currently working toward her PhD in linguistics, was also detained Saturday at JFK on her way back from spending winter break in Iran, according to the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Rasekhi and Sahar's parents were among approximately 20 immigrants and refugees detained at JFK by 6 p.m. Saturday, attorneys with the organization said.

Sahar — who did not want to provide her full name or show her face in a photo, for fear she would likewise be targeted by the Trump administration — broke down in tears in the Terminal 1 arrivals hall Saturday evening.

"If I'd known this would happen, I would have never come" to the U.S., she said. "I thought it was a democracy."

If Trump's new policy continues to prevent her from seeing her parents, Sahar said she and her husband will leave America.

"We'll have to go to a different country to find freedom," she said.

Sahar's parents secured two tourist visas back in October after "an extensive security process," Urooj Khan, a volunteer attorney working on the family's case, told Patch.

However, their visas were apparently voided as soon as Trump signed his order, while Sahar's parents were still in flight.

Sahar has not been allowed to speak with her mom and dad while they've been in Customs and Border Protection custody at JFK. She said she hopes they're not feeling afraid.

Attorneys with the International Refugee Assistance Project filed a last-minute habeas petition on behalf of Sahar's parents in Brooklyn federal court Saturday — as they did for more than a dozen immigrants and refugees also detained at JFK, including Rasekhi — hoping court officials might intervene. By 6:30 p.m., though, there was still no answer.

Turkish Airlines informed the attorneys that Sahar's parents would be placed on an 11 p.m. flight back to Iran.

Photos by Simone Wilson/Patch