I Want Iran to Be Free More Than Anything. I Also Don’t Trust Trump.

This ban only worsened during his second term, with no new visa applicants allowed to enter the United States. (During his first term, Trump finally relented and gave Iranian students the option to continue coming to study here.)

In 2018, Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal. Also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, this agreement was negotiated by Iran, the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and Germany, a remarkable diplomatic feat. Some Iranians – or Americans – may have amnesia about it today, but at the time it was widely celebrated. In Iran, thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate the deal, which promised relief from sanctions that were crippling their country and their lives. In the United States, a poll found that almost 60 percent of American voters supported the deal. When Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, he called it “a horrible one-sided deal that should never have been made” – and reimposed sanctions on “targeting critical sectors of the Iranian economy”, without ever flinching from the fact that this would harm the very Iranians he now claims to support.

During his second term, it was almost impossible to track the number of Iranians deported from the United States. Queer Iraniansfearing death upon their return to Iran, were targeted. Christian Iraniansfearing the same thing, were sent back to Iran or to a detention center in Panamawith no freedom in sight. The Trump administration is reviewing green cards for nationals of 19 countrieswhich-surprise, surprise!– also includes Iran. Just this week we received news from a woman who adopted from Iran at age two by an American veteran, who now faces deportation because she overstayed her visa, as a toddler. This administration has spent the last year working to return as many Iranians who left the country to face the current bombing campaign.