Iranian student in Alabama to self-deport despite withdrawal of initial charge behind his arrest

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

Alireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March as part of President Donald Trump's widespread immigration crackdown and has been held at a facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 300 miles (480 kilometers) 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 the government has not offered any evidence to support that claim, however.

Doroudi's visa was revoked in June 2023. Officials did not give a reason and ignored numerous inquiries from him that year, according to his fiancee, Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani.

Back then the University of Alabama advised Doroudi that he was legally allowed to stay but would not be allowed to re-enter if he left, Bajgani added.

This spring the government filed two charges against Doroudi to justify deporting him, saying his visa was revoked and he was not ''in status'' as a student, Rozas said.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 U.S. government 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 — in line with what the university told Doroudi earlier.

Rozas said he has submitted evidence disputing the remaining accusation, that he is not an active student.

A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the case, including Rozas' characterization of the initial arrest as an error.

The judge in the case, Maithe Gonzalez, gave both sides until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi's request to redetermine eligibility for bond. Doroudi decided to give up rather than continue to fight deportation.

''He told me that if they let him to go out, there was a good chance that he would have fought his case for the sake of other students and for the sake of himself,'' Bajgani said afterward by phone. ''They just want to make him tired so he can deport himself.''

Bajgani, who drove 11 hours round-trip to attend the hourlong hearing, echoed Rozas' confusion about why Doroudi was targeted for deportation, saying he has no criminal record, entered the country legally and was not politically outspoken like other students who have been targeted.

She affectionately described her fiance as a ''nerd'' and ''a really big thinker'' who spent long days in the lab and enjoys anime. He does not deserve what happened to him, she said, and now the life they built in Alabama is over.

''I am not happy about the whole thing that happened to us, and I need time to grieve for what I am going to put behind and leave,'' Bajgani said. ''All the dreams, friendships and dreams we had with each other.''

In a letter to Bajgani from behind bars in April, Doroudi called his detention a ''pure injustice.''

''I didn't cause any trouble in this country,'' he said. ''I didn't enter illegally. I followed all the legal paths.''

Rozas said he has not seen such a case in his 21 years as an immigration attorney. He accused authorities of denying his client due process and forcing him to choose between indefinite detention and self-deporting.

''I'm absolutely devastated,'' Rozas said, ''and I think it's a travesty of justice.''

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Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.