University of Alabama Iranian Students Draw Parallels Between U.S. Immigration Policies and Iranian Oppression

Alabama — Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani and her fiancé Alireza Doroudi had just spent the night enjoying the Persian New Year at the University of Alabama. Early the next morning, seven armed immigration officers showed up at their apartment and arrested Doroudi.

The young couple’s life turned upside down in an instant.

“Up until that night, my life was fine.” Bajgani said, “After that, nothing is right again.”

News of Doroudi’s arrest spread quickly through the small Iranian community in Tuscaloosa, where both Bajgani and Doroudi are graduate students. Other Iranian students say that staff members have told them informally to “lay low” and “be invisible,” which has made a group of students who used to be very active afraid.

Doroubi is one of many students in the U.S. who have been arrested recently as part of President Trump’s crackdown on immigration. She also said that she and her husband don’t know why Doroudi is being deported and that Trump’s recent visit to the school made her feel like the administration was “ignorant of our crisis.”

During the six weeks that Doroudi has been in jail, one close friend and civil engineering student from Iran said he has lost more than 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) because of worry and depression.

“Everyone seems to be waiting for their turn.” “Every knock on the door or email could mean deportation,” the student, who asked to remain anonymous because he was afraid of losing his legal standing, said.

He no longer goes outside when he doesn’t have to. He begged the other driver not to call the police after the accident last month, even though he wasn’t at blame, because he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

“I stayed because they told me to.”

Bajgani said that Doroudi, who is 32 years old, is an eager student of mechanical engineering from Shiraz, Iran.

With a student visa, he came to the US officially in January 2023. He said that he often worked 60-hour weeks and still found time to do things for his family.

She said, “There is no such thing as the American dream if people like him don’t get to where they deserve to be.”

Bajgani said that Doroudi’s visa was taken away in June 2023, but the government didn’t give him a reason and didn’t respond to his questions. He could stay at the university as long as he was a student, but she said he would not be able to come back to the U.S. if he left.

That was what he was following when immigration police showed up at the couple’s door in March.

The University of Alabama didn’t say anything about Doroudi’s case, but it did say that it has tools to help immigrants on campus follow federal law. It also helps students whose cards have been taken away.

Monica Watt, a spokesperson for the university, said in a statement, “Our international students are valued members of our campus community.”

Doroudi told Bajgani that he was scared and slept on the floor of a county jail for three days.

He is currently being held in an immigration holding center in Louisiana, which is more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) away from Tuscaloosa. He will be there until next week, when he will have a hearing to be deported. There is at least one other well-known foreign student there.

“This wasn’t fair to me.” I wouldn’t have broken the law, so if they had just sent me a letter telling me to go to court, I would have. “I stayed with their permission,” Doroudi wrote in a letter that he dictated to Bajgani over the phone so that other people could understand his point of view. “What was the reason you put me in jail?”

Trump’s war on immigration

An Associated Press review of university statements and letters with school officials shows that since late March, more than 1,000 foreign students in the U.S. have had their visas or legal status taken away. Some of them were against Israel’s war in Gaza. After some time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took back those denials, including those of four University of Alabama students.

Watt said, “University staff closely watches changes that could affect them and has shared information about new rules and procedures.”

David Rozas, Doroudi’s lawyer, said that the Louisiana judge who refused his bond in mid-April said he didn’t show enough proof that he wasn’t a threat to national security. Rozas said he was “amazed” that the government hadn’t shown proof that Doroudi is a danger, even though that’s what the Department of Homeland Security has said.

Fear that you know well

The website for the University of Alabama says that more than 13% of its college students are from outside of Alabama. The Iranian Student Association says that there are over 100 Iranian students at the university.

On Sizdah Bedar, the thirteenth day of the Persian new year, which starts with spring, many people get together for a picnic every year.

One Iranian graduate student said that the holiday, which is usually a time for fun, “felt like a funeral service” this year. At one point, a police car drove by and everyone stopped talking.

This place is making it too hard to live, be yourself, and do well, said the student, who asked to remain anonymous because she is afraid of being hurt.

Since she came to the US more than five years ago, she has spoken out against the Iranian government. Because of this, she thinks she is not safe in her home country. She still has those worries in Alabama.

She said, “All of a sudden it feels like we’re going back to Iran.”

Riddle works as a volunteer for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national service program run by a non-profit that puts reporters in local newsrooms to cover problems that don’t get enough attention.

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