Amid Iran War, US Terminates Legal Status Of Qasem Soleimani’s Relatives

Soleimani family sanctions: Trump revokes visas of Iran general’s relatives during war

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

The Trump administration has cancelled all U.S. immigration status for relatives of slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani as American forces trade missile strikes with Tehran across the Middle East.

Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed late Thursday that visas and green cards held by Soleimani’s widow, children, and siblings are now void, barring them from entering or remaining in the United States.

The move targets the family of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander whose 2020 death in a U.S. drone strike triggered Iranian retaliation and continues to shape the current conflict. Treasury officials said the action aims to choke off any financial or logistical support the relatives might provide to Tehran’s war effort.

Three of Soleimani’s daughters had held valid U.S. student visas until this week, according to a DHS notice sent to universities. His widow had visited California medical facilities in 2022 for treatment, immigration records show.

“The Soleimani family directly benefited from the general’s bloody career,” a senior administration official told reporters Friday. “We’re closing every door they had to American soil.”

Iran’s foreign ministry denounced the measure as “collective punishment” and vowed unspecified countermeasures. Tehran’s embassy in Ottawa, which handles Iranian interests in Washington, said it would seek alternative host countries for any family members now stranded.

The sanctions mark an escalation in Washington’s economic war against Tehran even as both nations exchange fire across the region. American warships intercepted Iranian missiles bound for Israel early Thursday, while U.S. jets struck IRGC facilities in Syria hours later.

Legal experts questioned the precedent of targeting a military commander’s relatives regardless of their own actions. “This stretches sanctions law into family retribution,” said Judith Maltin, a former Treasury sanctions lawyer now at Columbia University. “The statutes require some nexus to prohibited conduct.”

Administration officials rejected that critique. They distributed intelligence claiming Soleimani’s eldest son helped manage his father’s overseas finances and that his daughters promoted IRGC propaganda online. The evidence remains classified.

The family dispersal complicates Tehran’s efforts to cultivate the general’s legacy. State television had broadcast images of his widow visiting his burial shrine in southeastern Iran last month, part of a government campaign rallying public support for the war.

Soleimani’s killing at Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020, itself followed months of rising tensions. Trump ordered the strike after a Iranian-backed militia stormed the U.S. embassy in Iraq. Tehran responded by firing missiles at American troops in Iraq, causing traumatic brain injuries to dozens.

Current fighting eclipses those exchanges. The Pentagon reports over 100 Iranian missiles launched at Israel since Tuesday, the largest ballistic barrage in the Islamic Republic’s history. Israeli interceptors, supplemented by American naval vessels in the Mediterranean, knocked down most projectiles.

Casualties mount elsewhere. Syrian state media said 15 soldiers died in overnight U.S. strikes near Deir el-Zour. Iraq’s prime minister warned that American forces using Iraqi airspace risk “dragging us into a regional inferno.”

European allies, already struggling to contain Gaza fallout, distanced themselves from Washington’s family sanctions. “We target decision-makers, not bloodlines,” a French diplomatic source said. Brussels is urging de-escalation channels through Oman and Qatar.

Oil markets shrugged off the news after three days of wild swings. Brent crude held near $91 per barrel as traders calculated that neither Washington nor Tehran wants broader energy infrastructure hit.

Inside Iran, the sanctions feed state media narrative of American barbarism. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei invoked Soleimani’s memory in a Friday prayers speech, telling worshippers that “the Great Satan now wars against graves and widows.”

Congressional reaction split along predictable lines. Republican hawks praised Trump for “maximum pressure 2.0,” while progressive Democrats warned of perpetual escalation. “We’re sanctioning ghosts,” said Senator Chris Murphy. “The general’s dead, his family’s in Iran, and we’re still swinging.”

Background

Qasem Soleimani led the IRGC’s Quds Force for two decades, transforming it from a shadowy unit into Tehran’s primary tool for projecting power across the Middle East. He armed Hezbollah in Lebanon, guided Iraqi militias against U.S. troops after 2003, and orchestrated Syria’s defense against rebel forces starting in 2015.

His funeral in January 2020 drew millions onto Iranian streets, the largest public gathering since the 1979 revolution. Parliament chanted “death to America” and hardliners pledged immediate revenge. That came days later when Iran launched missiles at Al-Asad airbase in Iraq, injuring over 100 U.S. personnel.

What’s Next

Iran’s judiciary says it will compile a dossier on U.S. “crimes” for international courts, though such actions typically yield symbolic victories. More pressing, analysts expect Tehran to activate sleeper cells targeting American citizens abroad, a tactic used after previous sanctions waves.