St. Paul, MN (KROC-AM News) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement today announced the arrest of a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Minnesota.
A news release says ICE agents took 56-year-old Mehran Makari Saheli into custody in St. Paul on Sunday. Federal officials say he was convicted of being a felon illegally in possession of a firearm in Minneapolis and was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The statement also says an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S. in June 2022, but he remained in the country illegally. The Department of Homeland Security also describes him as a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with admitted connections to Hezbollah, which is considered by the U.S. to be a terrorist organization.
Saheli is among 11 Iranian nationals arrested in eight states as part of a nationwide enforcement campaign launched by ICE on Sunday. The other arrests were reported in Buffalo, New York; San Francisco; Colorado Springs; Phoenix; Houston; and Gluckstadt, Mississippi. The Department of Homeland Security says the man arrested in Mississippi is listed as a known or suspected terrorist.
“Under Secretary Noem, DHS has been full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and violent extremists that illegally entered this country, came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs, or otherwise,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “We have been saying we are getting the worst of the worst out — and we are. We don’t wait until a military operation to execute; we proactively deliver on President Trump’s mandate to secure the homeland.”…