Leili Ghazi, a 22-year-old immigrant from Iran, sits for a photo in Pasadena, Calif., Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Two years ago, Leili Ghazi quit studying biomedical engineering in Iran and seized the chance to travel to the United States to build a new life for herself and her parents. Now, the 22-year-old is separated indefinitely from her family because her father performed military service more than two decades ago for a branch of the Iranian armed forces that the U.S.
Many Iranian Americans and their families hoped the Biden administration would reverse course on the designation so those who served as conscripts could still travel. They note Iranian men are compelled to serve if they want to obtain passports to leave the country, have no say over what branch they're assigned to and largely perform basic tasks such as painting or office jobs.
The secretary of state designates the groups in consultation with the attorney general and treasury secretary, and with congressional review, and can also revoke designations. For example, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia was listed as a foreign terror organization in 1997 and delisted in 2021.
Taher Kameli, an attorney in Chicago who has also sued, said he fields calls daily from people asking how the designation affects them. He said he doesn’t believe the U.S. government can list another country’s military as a foreign terrorist organization and notes past administrations also had issues with the branch and refrained from making the designation due to the consequences it would bring.
Abolhassani was told he couldn't go because of his conscription more than a decade ago, which he said consisted of two months of basic training and designing water pipelines for the branch. He said he was assigned at random and the service was necessary so he could obtain a passport and leave the country to continue his education.