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Twice in the last month, an Iranian man arrested and locked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona has gone on hunger strike to protest his detention. Now the man's brother — who was arrested in Tempe last month in what a family immigration attorney believes to be an act of retaliation by ICE — is also refusing to eat during his own imprisonment.
Federal public defender Debbie Jang confirmed to Phoenix New Times that 40-year-old Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand "is currently on a hunger strike" while in detention at Central Arizona Florence Correctional Complex. A friend of Asadi Eidivand's, who asked to remain unnamed due to concern about their own immigration status, said Asadi Eidivand has eaten only four meals in the 17 days he has been detained and that he has lost 45 pounds.
Jang did not confirm those details but said a doctor at CAFCC said Asadi Eidivand believes a hunger strike is the only way he can protest ICE. The doctor told Jang that Asadi Eidivand said, "The ICE agents told me they were sending me back to Iran knowing that there is a death sentence waiting for me."
A spokesperson for CoreCivic, which operates the prison, did not provide specific details about Asadi Eidivand's condition but sent this statement to New Times:
"In general, anyone in our care at CAFFC or at any CoreCivic facility who chooses to initiate a hunger strike is promptly monitored closely by the facility’s medical staff. This includes regular vital sign checks, weight measurements, and evaluations of hydration and overall physical condition to ensure their well-being. Medical personnel follow established protocols to track the individual’s status, documenting any signs of deterioration. If the detainee’s health declines to a critical point, the medical staff have the authority to transfer the individual to a local hospital for additional care to address urgent health care needs and prevent life-threatening complications."
Asadi Eidivand's brother, a Valley bodybuilder named Mehrad Asadi Eidivand, twice went on hunger strike after being arrested and detained by ICE on May 31. A federal judge granted the government's request to force-feed him, though the man's immigration attorney, Rebecca Cheaves, said he broke his hunger strike before that step could be taken. A joint status report filed Wednesday by the federal government and a different attorney for Mehrad Asadi Eidivand states that he "has continued to eat and drink normally and has not expressed an intention to begin a third hunger strike." However, Cheaves — who represents him in immigration matters but was not the attorney fighting his force-feeding — told New Times on Wednesday that Mehrad is still "not eating well or much."
Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand was arrested by ICE on June 22 and charged with being an alien in possession of a firearm. He is undocumented and was given a deportation order in 2013, though he has appealed that order several times in the years since, all unsuccessfully. Jang described him in court as "anti-Muslim" and said he would fear for his safety if he were sent back to Iran, which is ruled by an extremist Islamic theocracy. Asadi Eidivand's friends also describe him as a big fan of President Donald Trump.
ICE had attempted to detain him a day earlier but did not have a judicial warrant and was turned away by his wife, who is a U.S. citizen. The wife, Linet Vartanniavartanians, called Tempe police and said she was armed and would shoot the ICE agents if they tried to illegally enter the house. Ironically, that call may have given ICE the opening to arrest Asadi Eidivand, who is prohibited from possessing a firearm as an undocumented immigrant. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, which is a division of ICE, arrived with a warrant the next day, arresting Asadi Eidivand and his wife, who was charged with threatening a law enforcement officer.
Last week, a judge ordered that Asadi Eidivand would be detained until his trial, which is set for Aug. 12. On Wednesday, Vartanniavartanians appeared for a detention hearing — during which audio from the critical 911 call was played in open court — though a judge has not yet ruled on whether she will be released pending trial.
The 911 call
At her Wednesday detention hearing before federal judge Deborah Fine at the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse, the 37-year-old Vartanniavartanians sat in a red jumpsuit, turned to say hello to a few friends who came to support her, and then listened as the court played audio from the 911 call that landed her in federal custody. Counterintuitively, she wound up with a criminal charge because she called police for help.Around 9:20 p.m. on June 21, two or three ICE agents knocked on the door of the couple's Tempe home and asked to speak to Asadi Eidivand. According to what she told a 911 dispatcher, Vartanniavartanians did not open the door but spoke to the agents from behind it. She learned they did not have a judicial warrant and told them to leave until they had one. Vartanniavartanians told the dispatcher that the ICE agents, who she said were masked and did not give their names, did not leave and that she could see them on the edges of the property.
"ICE officers are trying to invade my home," she said on the call.
In the call, Vartanniavartanians sounded rattled, both by ICE's presence at her home and by the multitude of instances of immigration agents arresting otherwise law-abiding immigrants without permanent legal status. She said ICE is "tearing up families. That's not going to happen to my family," and noted that she and her husband are "not fucking criminals," an apparent reference to the Trump administration's largely abandoned promise to target convicted criminals for deportation. "I'm not going to accept it," Vartanniavartanians said on the call. "This is crazy."
Vartanniavartanians told the dispatcher that she called to report that ICE was not leaving and agreed to have Tempe police officers come to the house. At several points, she said that she had a loaded gun in her hand and would shoot if ICE attempted to enter her home without a warrant. For much of the call, that threat was explicitly conditional — that Vartanniavartanians would shoot if the agents illegally invaded her home. But later in the call, as she became audibly more stressed, she ventured beyond that hypothetical in a way that likely hurts her case.
As she told the dispatcher about being able to see ICE agents beyond the low wall in their backyard — and as she expressed concern that they might hop it — she said, "I'll go outside the backyard and just shoot them in the head. I'll go to the prison." She added soon after: "I'm not safe. These people are not leaving my home."
At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Addison Owen acknowledged that Vartanniavartanians was "very scared" but said the threat to shoot officers is what landed her in criminal court. Vartanniavartanians' attorney, Brandon Cotto, argued that her fear was reasonable and that some might view ICE hovering near the home after being told to leave "as harassment." He also noted that several home security cameras had been removed from the home after the couple was arrested, raising the possibility that ICE took them.
Fine has not yet ruled on whether Vartanniavartanians will remain in custody pending trial.
