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Loomer takes credit for arrest of former Iranian commander’s niece in California

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by Sarah Fortinsky - 04/06/26 4:03 PM ET

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by Sarah Fortinsky - 04/06/26 4:03 PM ET

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Far-right media figure Laura Loomer took credit on Saturday for the arrests of the niece and grandniece of former Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. strike on Iraq during President Trump’s first term in 2020.

Loomer said in a social media post that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested Soleimani’s niece, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, and her daughter following her “report and follow up with the US State Department.”

In that report, Loomer said, “I exposed the fact that Qasem Soleimani’s Niece Hamideh Soleimani Afshar has been living in the United States (Los Angeles, California) where she posts pro-Iranian regime and pro-IRGC content on her social media while she lives a life of luxury.”

“Over the last few months, I have quietly been documenting all of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar’s social media activity. I uploaded it all to a secure file and shared it with DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and Department of State, and now she has been arrested and she will be deported from our country,” Loomer added.

Loomer’s statement came in response to her post from March 9, when the conservative influencer announced she reported Soleimani’s niece to the DHS, which houses ICE, and to the State Department.

“I am in touch with Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s @marcorubio team at the US State Department and counterterrorism officials at DHS. They told me they are looking into my evidence immediately,” Loomer said last month.

The State Department announced Saturday that Soleimani’s niece and grandniece were taken into custody by federal agents on Friday night, after Rubio terminated their lawful permanent resident status. A DHS spokesperson said the two relatives were being held at a South Texas detention facility in Pearsall.

A State Department spokesperson would not comment on Loomer’s claims that her reporting led to the arrests, telling The Hill, “We do not comment on private conversations that may or may not have happened.”

But Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of State for global public affairs, reposted Loomer’s statement taking credit for the arrests.

Rubio did not address Loomer’s comments directly but echoed her reporting in his Saturday statement, in which he described Soleimani’s niece as “an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the ‘Great Satan.’”

“The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes,” the secretary added.

The arrests come amid a broader war with Iran that the Trump administration launched in late February. Trump has given Tehran an 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face unrelenting strikes against its energy infrastructure.

Iran has shown little sign of bending to U.S. terms. On Monday, it rejected the U.S. 15-point proposal for peace as “excessive” and “unreasonable.”

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