ICE Detains Iranian Professor for 3 Days for “Standard Questioning”

An Iranian professor for the University of Oklahoma was released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday after spending three days in detention for what the agency has deemed “standard questioning.”

Vahid Abedini is an assistant professor of Iranian Studies for the university. On Saturday, he was on his way to the Middle East Studies Association’s annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., when he was arrested at Will Rogers International Airport in Oklahoma City.

Abedini said in a post on LinkedIn that he was released on Monday night.

“It was a deeply distressing experience, especially seeing those without the support I had,” he said. “My sincere thanks to my friends and colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, the Middle East Studies Association, and the wider Iran studies and political science community for helping resolve this.”

Joshua Landis, the director for the university’s department within which Abedini worked, announced Abedini’s detention on X earlier on Monday. He said that Abedini was “wrongfully detained” and had a valid H-1B visa, which allows immigrants with specialized skills to work in the U.S.

Abedini’s faculty page says he studies “elite politics, foreign policy, and political economy” with regards to Iran and the Middle East.

Officials have not given a reason for Abedini’s detention. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told OU Daily: “This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning. He’s been released.”

DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin gave The New York Times a similar statement, also citing “standard questioning,” seemingly for a practice that experts have said is likely illegal.

However, the Trump administration has been targeting Iranian immigrants in the U.S. for arrest, many of them seemingly arbitrary. According to an analysis by Prism, hundreds of Iranian immigrants have been arrested by ICE under Trump — with a major spike in arrests in the week after the U.S. military military struck Iran this June.

“These arrests were driven by nationality, not evidence,” National Iranian American Council (NIAC) organizing manager Etan Mabourakh told Prism. “This is about punishing an entire community for theater rather than addressing genuine security concerns.”

Landis said that the university was in the process of switching Abedini’s visa to University of Oklahoma, which he had just begun teaching for, from his old employer. But this process is very routine, Landis added, and there were no legal aberrations with his visa.

“Iranian heritage is not a crime, yet ICE has increasingly targeted Iranians, ripping them from their communities and loved ones without justification. The arrest of Dr. Abedini was outrageous and follows this deeply concerning trend,” NIAC said in a statement on Tuesday. “ICE must halt their wrongful, discriminatory targeting of individuals on the basis of their Iranian origin, and release all those who have been unjustly detained both before and after the June war.”