An Iranian mother who was seized by ICE while gardening at her New Orleans home has been freed after a prominent Republican intervened with the Department of Homeland Security.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told media outlet WDSU that he asked DHS to give 64-year-old Mandonna “Donna” Kashanian "a fair shake" by considering "her life's work."
That includes being a “'devoted mother and wife, a caretaker, neighbor and dedicated volunteer' with Habitat for Humanity, her local school district and other organizations," Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, a Louisiana House Republican, told The Associated Press.
Hilferty said she and Scalise shared more than 100 letters of neighborhood support for Kashanian with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Kashanian arrived in the United States in 1978 on a student visa and "unsuccessfully applied for asylum based on her father’s support of the U.S.-backed shah," according to the report. She remained in the United States for 47 years, and her husband and daughter are both U.S. citizens.
She "had been allowed to stay in the U.S. as long as she checked in regularly with immigration authorities, as she had done without fail, her family and attorney said," according to the report.
“When she was picked up, we looked at it and said, ‘Are they really looking at it the right way, objectively?’” Scalise told WDSU. “And so they took a second look at it.”
Kashanian's attorney, Ken Mayeaux, told the AP that Scalise’s intervention was “absolutely crucial” to secure her release after two weeks in custody. He added that "Kashanian’s legal status is still being worked out."
Kashanian's husband, Russell Milne, told the AP, “She’s meeting her obligations. She’s retirement age. She’s not a threat. Who picks up a grandmother?”
A spokesperson for DHS told the AP in an emailed statement that “the facts of this case have not changed.”
“Mandonna Kashanian is in this country illegally. She exhausted all her legal options," the email said.