Iranian pupil to self-deport despite dropped charge

MONTGOMERY : An Iranian mechanical engineering student at University of Alabama has decided to self-deport after six weeks in a Louisiana detention centre despite govt dropping a charge behind his initial arrest, his lawyer and fiancee said.

Alireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March and has been held at a facility in Louisiana, over 300 miles from where he lived with his fiancee in Alabama. At the time, the state department said Doroudi posed "significant national security concerns." Doroudi's lawyer, David Rozas, said govt hasn't offered evidence to support the claim. Doroudi's visa was revoked in June 2023. Officials did not give a reason and ignored numerous inquiries, his fiancee, Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani, said. The university told Doroudi he was legally allowed to stay but would not be allowed to re-enter if he left. This spring, govt filed two charges against Doroudi to justify deporting him, saying his visa was revoked and he was not "in status" as a student, Rozas said.

On Thursday, a govt attorney withdrew the first of those and said the visa revocation was "prudential", meaning it would not go into effect until after he leaves the country. A state department spokesperson declined to comment on the case, including Rozas' characterisation of the initial arrest as an error. The judge in the case gave both sides until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi's plea to redetermine eligibility for bond. Doroudi decided to give up rather than continue to fight deportation.

"He told me if they let him go out, there was a good chance he would have fought his case for the sake of other students and for the sake of himself," Bajgani said. She echoed Rozas' confusion about why Doroudi was targeted, saying he had no criminal record, entered the US legally and was not politically outspoken like others who have been targeted.