You’ve heard about the roundup of illegal Iranian nationals in recent days. I’ve dug into the colorful backstory of one, Mehran Makari Saheli, arrested by ICE in St. Paul over the weekend. His story strains credulity as to what you can get away with and still be walking free. Reprinted from my original piece at AmericanExperiment.Org:
The press release from DHS reads:
ICE Arrests 11 Iranian Nationals Illegally in the U.S. Over the Weekend
What were the odds that one of the 11 would be in Minnesota? The odds were always 100 percent. From the DHS press release:
On June 22, in St. Paul, Minnesota, ICE arrested Mehran Makari Saheli, a 56-year-old Iranian national. He was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Minneapolis, where he was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He is a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with admitted connections to Hezbollah. An immigration judge ordered him removed June 28, 2022, under the Biden administration, but he illegally remained in the U.S. Saheli is now in ICE custody pending removal.
The failure to remove Saheli in 2022 is even more of a mystery given that his gun conviction was in federal court. Given the current international situation, we’ll see how cooperative Iran will be regarding his repatriation.
His felon-in-possession case dates from April 2020 and involved a 9 mm pistol. The prior felony conviction involved (get this) another federal conviction in July 2009 for possessing fake immigration documents.
In that 2009 federal case, it was revealed that Saheli had used a fake Turkish passport to enter the U.S. back in 1998. In a plea agreement, he was given probation. His 2009 indictments adds a colorful backstory, including bribery to get sprung from a Malaysian jail,
In August 2022, Saheli was sentenced on the gun charge (via a plea agreement) to 15 months in prison. Under the terms of his plea agreement, the suggested prison term ranged from 15 to 21 months. The judge went with the low end.
However, he was given credit for time served while in ICE custody in the separate deportation case. You read that correctly.
As late as November 2023, Saheli appears to have been in ICE custody until the Minneapolis-based The Advocates for Human Rights immigration rights nonprofit successfully sued for his release, court records reveal. The Advocates’ most recent IRS tax return (2024) reveals the nonprofit receives much of its funding from government grants.
For example, state records indicate that during the period 2019-24, under the administration of Governor Tim Walz, the nonprofit received over $360,000 in grants from the Dept. of Health. An even larger amount, over $1.3 million, was provided to the nonprofit by the state Dept. of Human Services under Walz in the past three years.
A reader points out that a sitting, Tim Walz-appointed state judge sits on the nonprofit’s board of directors.
The Advocates refused to comment for this post, citing attorney-client privilege.
On their website, The Advocates write:
When people move with dignity, the world is a more just, safe, and peaceful place.
Not everyone who has encountered Mr. Saheli would agree.
As of Halloween 2024, Saheli was a free man, picked up in Kandiyohi County on a misdemeanor domestic assault charge. At the time, he was living in the Minnesota town of New London. Saheli pled down to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. His 90-day sentence was stayed.
The April 2020 incident that gave rise to the federal gun charge began as a traffic stop in Lonsdale (MN). By my count, Saheli recorded nineteen (19) convictions for some form of driving on a revoked/suspended/without-a-valid driver’s license. His most recent conviction came in March of this year and lists his address as Madison Lake, MN.
From the time period of 2015 to today, Saheli has accumulated more than $7,000 in unpaid state court fines over 23 separate cases. Unpaid fines more than a decade old have been written off by the state.
In 2018, he was convicted on a felony charge of receiving stolen property, a Bobcat skid steer. At the time, Saheli was living in Bloomington, MN. Over the objections of prosecutors, he was given a downward departure on sentencing, pushing the case down to a gross misdemeanor. His one-year jail sentence was stayed.
The ICE database indicates that Saheli is currently being held in the Sherburne County (MN) jail.
