Iranian woman jailed upon arrival in US despite having valid visa

The incident has revived fears of Muslim travellers being targeted under Trump’s travel ban

An Iranian woman was moved to a jail in Oregon following detention at the Portland airport on Tuesday despite having a US tourist visa to visit her family in the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU].

Alia Ghandi was taken aside after her flight landed at the airport and after several hours of detention, she was moved to a county jail 80 miles away, said Mat dos Santos, the legal director of ACLU Oregon.

Dos Santos, in an interview on Wednesday said that these were “terrifying circumstance.”

“That is something that anybody would think is just a completely unacceptable way to treat anyone, especially somebody here on a valid visa and not to our knowledge being accused of having committed any kind of crime,” he expressed.



The 29-year-old Iranian architect intended to visit her sister, a US citizen, in Portland. According to Dos Santos, she briefly talked to her sister after arriving but has been unable to connect with her family and attorneys since the arrest.

“Imagine arriving in a foreign country, being held for hours at an airport for reasons you don’t understand, then being transported to a jail an hour and a half away and denied the ability to talk to your local family.”

The reason behind her detention remains unclear however; a spokesperson for US Customs and Border Patrol clarified that the detention was not related to the travel ban adding that moving Ghandi to a local jail was ‘customary’ since the CBP did not have a facility at the airport for overnight stay.

The spokesperson also explained that the Iranian woman was not facing any criminal charges but was being held for a “minor administrative violation”, the ACLU director confirmed that the organisation too was not aware of any criminal investigation.

In a statement, the CBP denied to release specifics about the case but said that “having a ‘valid visa’ does not guarantee a foreign national entry into the US”.

“A traveler regardless of their country of nationality can be found inadmissible into the US for various reasons,” the press release adds.



The incident has revived fears of Muslim travellers being targeted under the US President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban on Muslim-majority counties.

Dos Santos said that he was unsure whether this was an isolated case from the local CBP authorities or “something coming from headquarters.”

“This has just been incredibly painful and confusing,” said Das Santos. “This is a family who by all accounts was just looking forward to a nice vacation.”

According to an administrator at the Northern Oregon regional correctional facility, Bryan Brandenburg, Ghandi was detained for 12 hours. He said that the 29-year-old was at county jail due to a “federal warrant”, claiming that the jail did not hold people for their immigration status.

The executive orders first signed in January, banned entry into the US from six Muslim-dominated countries. The travel ban was halted by federal courts and forced the Trump administration to issue a revised order that excluded one country, Iraq – but it was blocked again by a Hawaii court.

The ban also sparked protests and rallies across the countries.

This article originally appeared on the Guardian.