The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE has taken hundreds of nationals into custody across the United States. This happened after the United States and Iran had a fight in June 2025. The United States military did some attacks on Irans facilities. After that the ICE started arresting nationals. They were arrested for things like breaking immigration rules or maybe being connected to groups.
These arrests started after the United States did some operations against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in June 2025. This made things very tense in the Middle East. ICE agents went to states and arrested Iranian nationals. They were accused of things like immigration violations or crimes. Some of these people were already supposed to be deported. Others were found out through security investigations.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said that least 11 Iranian nationals were arrested in a big operation. This operation happened over 48 hours in eight states and nine cities. One of the people arrested was Mehran Makari Saheli. He used to be a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Department of Homeland Security said that Saheli used to be connected to Hezbollah. This is a group that the United States considers to be an organization.
The ICE arrested more Iranian nationals over the next few days. By the end of June 2025 they had arrested around 130 people. 670 Iranians were being held in detention centers across the country. The officials said they did this because they were worried about sleeper cell” activity. This means they were worried that some people might be hiding and waiting to do something
The Trump administration said that these arrests were necessary for security. They said that the people arrested had broken immigration laws or might be a threat to the country.. Many groups that help immigrants and civil rights organizations were very critical of these arrests. They said that the government was targeting nationals just because of where they were from. They said this was not fair and that it was like punishing a group of people for something they did not do.
One pastor, Ara Torosian saw the ICE arrest an Iranian couple. He also stated that the officers were really tough on the migrants and that one of the women was hurt. In fact, he had to scream at the officers to summon an ambulance for her. A number of immigration attorneys were also quite concerned with how the migrants were being handled. This is because the migrants in question had been detained while waiting to have their asylum claims heard for quite a long time.
All of this happened during a tense time between Iran and Israel. They were. Many people got hurt. The United States was also. This made things even more complicated. Many Americans had to leave Iran because it was not safe. Some of them even got. Detained when they were trying to leave.
According to security experts, the ICE believes that there will be consequences within the US in case the situation between Iran and the US becomes worse. In other words, the ICE believes that some individuals may want to act against the US as a reaction to whatever happened. Even though the authorities have not said that the people they arrested were planning to do anything the timing of the arrests has made many people talk about the national security of the United States and the civil rights of people living in the United States. The conflict, with Iran and the arrests have got many people thinking about the ICE and what the ICE is doing to keep the United States safe.
The Iranian government and the Iranian media were really upset about these arrests. The people in charge of the government said that the United States is picking on the immigrants from Iran because of the fight, between the United States and Iran .Human rights groups are really scared. The human rights groups said that arresting these people could make things even worse between the United States and Iran. The United States and Iran are already not getting along. This is making the United States and Iran even more angry, at each other. They could also scare Iranian people who live in other countries.
The United States has done things like this before. After the September 11 attacks they started watching people from countries more closely.. Many critics say that this is not fair and that it is discriminatory. They are worried that the same thing is happening again.
There will probably be court cases about these arrests in the coming months. Immigration lawyers will try to help the people who were detained. Civil rights groups are also asking Congress to look into what the ICE’s doing. The authorities say that they will keep investigating and arresting people if they think it is necessary.. Many people are worried, about what this might mean for Iranian nationals who live in the United States.
