TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) — A judge is requesting more information before deciding whether or not to grant bond to an Alabama student from Iran who could potentially face deportation after being picked up by immigration officials in Tuscaloosa last month.
Alireza Doroudi was set to have a bond hearing Monday afternoon at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, where he has been held for over two weeks after ICE agents came to his apartment near the University of Alabama and detained him. At the time, Doroudi was studying for his doctorate degree in mechanical engineering.
According to attorney David Rozas, Judge Maithe Gonzalez requested that both he and the U.S. government provide more information before making a decision on bond. Gonzalez subsequently set another hearing for Thursday afternoon.
Rozas said Doroudi’s visa was inexplicably revoked not long after he arrived in the U.S. from Iran in 2023. Rozas claimed, however, that Doroudi SEVIS (student and exchange visitor program) permit was valid, and he was applying for permanent residency at the time of his detainment.
Despite the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claiming that Doroudi posed “significant national security concerns,” no details have been given on why the 32-year-old doctoral student was a security risk. Outside of a speeding ticket in 2023, Doroudi does not have a criminal record, and his lawyers claim he has no record of supporting terrorist groups or expressing anti-American sentiment.
“With the words of his fiancé, he is a nerd,” Rozas told The Associated Press shortly after Doroudi’s detention. “All he does is study and is literally trying to fulfill his dream, the American dream, of becoming a researcher and professor of mechanical engineering.”
Doroudi is staying in the same ICE facility as Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City who another judge recently ordered to be deported after being the government had labeled him a “national security risk” for taking part in pro-Palestinian movements. Khalil’s attorneys are currently appealing the decision.
A master hearing, where Doroudi and his lawyers will have the opportunity to argue why he should not be removed from the U.S., has not been set yet.
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