Evangelical Pastor Ara Torosian knows what it’s like to become a “target” of Iran’s Islamist regime.
Having been on house arrest for two years, Torosian, who now shepherds the Farsi-speaking congregation at Cornerstone Church in Los Angeles, California, fled his native country more than a decade ago and is grateful to have been resettled in the United States as a refugee.
“I experienced true religious freedom for the first time in my life in this country, of which I am now a proud, grateful citizen,” Torosian, who is now a U.S. citizen, wrote in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times this week.
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But in June, he was “shocked” when masked federal immigration officials detained five members of his congregation, including one couple seeking asylum. He said they were “separated from their families and threatened with deportation” back to a country that would “kill them for their Christian faith.”
A viral video that circulated online purports to show one woman having a panic attack as officers arrest her husband on the street, a few blocks away from the church. Torosian ran over to the scene after being contacted by the woman. The pastor films the interaction and shouts at the officers, asking, “Why are you doing this?”
“I rushed over and began to film the shocking scene: First he was detained by masked officers, and then she was. I asked if they had a judicial warrant, but if they did, they would not show me,” he recalled. “The woman experienced a panic attack and was taken to a hospital but discharged into ICE custody; she is now hours away in a detention center in California. Her husband is in a detention center in Texas.”
What he witnessed, the pastor said, gave him “flashbacks to Tehran.”
“I believe that America is better than this,” he stressed. “This behavior reminds me disturbingly of what I fled in Iran. But I know that most Americans do not support this, nor do most fellow evangelical Christians: Many evangelicals voted for Trump because he pledged to protect persecuted Christians — not to deport them.”
Last week, Torosian traveled to the nation’s capital to fast and pray for three days in Lafayette Park outside the White House for the families that had been detained. He also lobbied on their behalf in the halls of Capitol Hill. With the support of the Evangelical refugee advocacy organization World Relief, the pastor met with lawmakers.
“I’m glad that at least they hear what’s happened to my church members and Iranian Christian refugees,” he said in an Instagram video during his first-ever visit to the U.S. Capitol. “Hopefully, it will work.”
Torisian said that the couple was once “lawfully allowed” in the U.S. with “provisional humanitarian status” and secured work authorization. After they found Torisian’s church, they were baptized and professed faith in Christ. Their first asylum hearing was scheduled for September.
The couple entered the U.S. through the CBP One process, the pastor said. However, federal agents said that the couple’s status is “no longer valid.”
Amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation push since taking office, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has instructed people who had been allowed to enter the U.S. via the CBP One app to leave the country, reversing an initiative initiated during the Biden administration that allowed asylum seekers to schedule appointments at ports of entry. Roughly 985,000 people used the app to enter the U.S.
The Trump administration contends that the Biden administration “abused the parole authority,” and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has “full authority to revoke parole.”
“Canceling these paroles is a promise kept to the American people to secure our borders and protect national security,” the DHS said in a statement.
In his op-ed, Torosian said that many parolees have received letters telling them to self-deport. However, he claimed those letters also stated that the instructions did not apply to those who had “otherwise obtained a lawful basis to remain.”
In statements to the media, DHS confirmed the arrest of the Iranian asylum couple, saying it detained “two Iranian nationals unlawfully present in the U.S. — both flagged as subjects of national security interest.”
Among those who have received letters telling them to self-deport are around two dozen Afghan Christian asylum seekers who attend Church of the Apostles in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Church members have lobbied members of Congress and fear Afghan asylum seekers could also face severe persecution if they are deported back to Afghanistan. Evangelical leader Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Evangelical humanitarian charity Samaritan’s Purse, has also reportedly spoken with leaders in Washington about the Afghanistan asylum seekers. He told The Christian Post in April that he believes “this will be resolved.”
Other Iranian Christians who fled persecution have already been deported from the U.S., including 11 deported from the U.S. to Panama, who have reportedly received a six-month extension to remain in Panama on humanitarian visas. They have until December to find refuge in a third country.
In May, U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., the first Iranian American elected to Congress, introduced legislation to end expedited removal for refugees fleeing from countries recognized by the U.S. State Department as countries of particular concern for religious freedom violations or countries included on the agency’s special watch list. Iran has been designated as a country of particular concern since 1999.
Under the bill, refugees from such countries would be entitled to have their asylum cases heard in immigration courts before they can be removed from the country.
