8 July 3rd - July 9th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Retaliation Nation ICE targets Tempe family of detained Iranian man on hunger strike. BY ZACH BUCHANAN F or the past month, Iranian asylum seeker Mehrad Asadi Eidivand has been held in detention at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Florence. Twice in that time, he has engaged in a hunger strike over his inability to get a prompt court date. Last week, a judge ruled that the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, could force-feed Eidivand while in detention. Eidivand’s ordeal generated headlines locally and nationally. His attorney and his sister-in-law spoke out against his deten- tion. Then late last month — in a move that Eidivand’s attorney believes was retalia- tion by ICE — immigration agents arrested his brother and sister-in-law at their Tempe home. The brother — a similarly named undocumented Iranian man, Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand — was charged with being an alien in possession of a firearm, according to court documents. The sister- in-law, a U.S. citizen named Linet Vartanniavartanians, was indicted on a charge of making threats against a law enforcement officer. The pair was arrested June 22 by agents from Homeland Security Investigations. It’s not clear where they’re being held. A search of Mehrzad Eidivand’s name does not return any results on ICE’s detainee lookup tool, and a lawyer listed in court documents as representing Vartanniavartanians declined to comment when reached by Phoenix New Times. Immigration attorney Rebecca Cheaves, who is representing the hunger-striking Mehrad Eidivand, told New Times she is trying to locate his detained family members. She said that when Mehrad Eidivand learned of his brother and sister- in-law’s arrest, he said, “It doesn’t surprise me.” “Mehrad’s brother, prior to this arrest, was helping me gather all this evidence for Mehrad,” Cheaves said. “I just feel like it was targeted toward the brother and wife. What a coincidence that I’m over here struggling with Mehrad getting him released and the brother is my point of contact, providing all the information for me on his asylum claim.” A spokesperson for ICE acknowledged a request for comment but has not answered questions from New Times. The timing of the arrests raises eyebrows about ICE’s decision to target Mehrzad Eidivand for removal. According to an affidavit signed by HSI agent Anthony Sinatra, Mehrzad Eidivand entered the United States in 2012 through a port of entry, claiming “a fear of return to his home country.” Iran is governed by a militant Islamic government; the Eidivand brothers are Christians, Cheaves said. In 2013, an immigration judge ordered Mehrzad Eidivand to voluntarily depart the country. Mehrzad Eidivand has appealed that ruling several times in the years since, so far unsuccessfully. On May 2, he motioned to adjust his immigration status to account for his marriage to Vartanniavartanians, a request the affidavit said is pending. However, the indictment against him does not suggest he has any criminal record, though he has been eligible for arrest and removal since receiving the 2013 order to depart the country. That’s why Cheaves finds it curious that the Department of Homeland Security didn’t target him until his brother’s hunger strike subjected the department to nega- tive news coverage. “I believe that they targeted Mehrad’s brother and his wife because of Mehrad’s situation,” Cheaves said. “They don’t want him to get any help from the outside, so the best way to do that is to detain them as well.” The arrests ICE first attempted to detain Mehrzad Eidivand at his home on June 21, without success. And it appears the way he and Vartanniavartanian reacted to that attempt may have given HSI agents an opening to arrest them a day later. According to court documents and a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona, ICE showed up at the couple’s home and were denied entry by Vartanniavartanians, who refused to talk to them and told them to return with a warrant. The indictment says Vartanniavartanians then called Tempe police and also includes quotes from the 911 call she made. New Times has requested the 911 audio, body-worn camera footage and incident reports from Tempe police related to the incident but has yet to receive them. The indictment says Vartanniavartanians informed the police dispatcher that she was armed and that “anybody trying to enter my house is going to be shooted (sic). I don’t allow anyone in my house, including ICE.” She also allegedly threatened to “go outside the backyard” and “just shoot them in the head,” actions she noted would land her “in the prison.” According to the indictment, Mehrzad Eidivand came to the phone at one point and told the Tempe police dispatcher that “he is a patriot and does not agree with what’s going on.” When asked if there were guns in the house, he allegedly acknowl- edged there were “plenty of guns.” That admission, and his wife’s threat to shoot any ICE agents who entered her home without a warrant, may have given immigration agents the justification for arresting them on their respective criminal charges. When HSI agents executed a search warrant at the home a day later, they said they found two loaded handguns, one on the kitchen counter and the other on a nightstand. Vartanniavartanians also allegedly told agents that she had guns. As a U.S. citizen, she enjoys the right to bear arms, and Cheaves said she believes both guns are registered to Vartanniavartanian. But even if she legally owned the weapons, their presence in the home — and Mehrzad Eidivand’s knowl- edge of and potential access to them — may have put him in legal jeopardy. According to Phoenix criminal defense attorney Bret Royle, the fact that Mehrzad Eidivand might not have owned the fire- arms is largely irrelevant to whether he “possessed” them as criminal law defines the term. Such cases often rely on what’s called constructive possession. “It’s do I have knowledge that the item is there and do I have the ability to have dominion and control over it,” Royle said. Joshua Davidson, another criminal defense attorney in Phoenix, offered an example to illustrate the concept. A Homeland Security Investigations agent stands in a Peoria neighborhood on June 10. (Morgan Fischer) The booking photo of Mehrzad Eidivand. 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