Immigration authorities detained a University of Oklahoma professor of Iranian studies on Saturday while he was on his way to an academic conference in Washington, D.C., despite having a valid H-IB visa, a colleague said.
Newsweek contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and University of Oklahoma for comment via email outside office hours.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump campaigned on mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, specifically targeting those with violent criminal records, and his administration ramped up immigration enforcement since his return to office in January.
But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol are facing increased scrutiny due to numerous allegations of misconduct, heavy-handed tactics and the detention of people with rights to remain in the U.S.
The Trump administration is pushing forward with plans to carry out what it calls the largest deportation operation in U.S. history as part of the Republicans’ hard-line immigration agenda.
What To Know
The professor, Vahid Abedini, was detained on November 22 as he was boarding a flight to Washington for a Middle East Studies Association conference, his colleague, Joshua Landis, said in a post on X.
“He has been wrongfully detained because he has a valid H-1B visa – a non-immigrant work visa granted to individuals in ‘specialty occupations,’ including higher education faculty,” said Landis, a professor of Middle East Studies at the university.
Abedini teaches at the University of Oklahoma’s Boren College of International Studies.
As of late Monday, ICE listed Abedini on its online detainee locator, saying he was in ICE custody and giving his birthplace as Iran. It did not disclose his current whereabouts.
A friend of Abedini’s told HuffPost that she had spoken to Abedini on Monday and that he was in immigration custody, though it was unclear where. “He seems to be in good spirits,” the friend, who declined to be identified, told HuffPost. “He has access to basic essential items like towels and blankets.”
ICE is preparing for a large-scale increase in enforcement operations as newly trained agents begin deployment nationwide, the DHS has said.
The Trump administration’s funding legislation—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—which was signed into law in July, provides $45 billion to expand ICE’s detention capacity to nearly 100,000 beds, $14 billion for transportation and removal operations, and $8 billion to hire 10,000 new deportation officers.
What People Are Saying
Landis, to HuffPost: “Obviously, all of the Middle East scholars are horrified…He is very pro-America, let me just make that clear. He loves America.”
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, in an interview with Fox News on October 26: “We want to really surge those arrest numbers, especially given that One Big Beautiful Bill that we’ve received the funding to do it. … We’re going to be making great progress.
“We have 175,000 applications to ICE so we can really surge our workforce and get more brave men and women on the ground to do this great work.”
What Happens Next
Landis told HuffPost that Abedeni’s case is being examined by “a bevy of lawyers.”
