Madonna ‘Donna’ Kashanian, 64, was taken by plainclothes officers from her home in New Orleans
A 64-year-old Iranian woman, who has lived in the US for 47 years, was detained by immigration agents on Sunday morning while gardening outside her home in New Orleans.
According to a witness, plainclothes officers in unmarked vehicles handcuffed Madonna “Donna” Kashanian and transported her to a Mississippi jail before transferring her to the South Louisiana Ice processing center in Basile, reports Nola.
Kashanian arrived in the US in 1978 on a student visa and later applied for asylum, citing fears of persecution due to her father’s ties to the US-backed Shah of Iran. Her asylum request was ultimately denied, but she was granted a stay of removal on the condition she comply with immigration requirements, a condition her family says she always met.
I don’t understand why they denied her asylum. The case seems really straightforward.
Likely because her reasoning and fears were at odds with our geopolitics. It’d be like us accepting South Korean refugees for their fear of North Korean reprisal…if North Korea had largely been subsumed and the war was over for several years.
What kind of gardening? Violent gardening? Was she sowing the seeds of discontent?
She was just gardening there! Menacingly!
She was gardening right at me!
She’s got a dandelion!
