Iran student says forced to agree to deportation terms

los angeles — When Sara Yarjani handed her passport to an immigration officer at Los Angeles airport she was sure she’d be waved through customs, as had happened before. Instead, 23 hours later, she was deported.

Yarjani, who spoke by telephone late on Monday from Vienna, where she is a permanent resident, said her ordeal began shortly after her plane landed on Friday evening and — unbeknownst to her — Trump’s travel ban had kicked in.

“I had been on holiday in Canada to see my sister and then went to Austria and was coming back to resume classes,” said Yarjani, a student of holistic health at the California Institute for Human Science, located north of San Diego.

“I was not expecting to be

The officer told me ‘you have two option — either you comply and agree to leave voluntarily ... or you will forcibly be deported and face a ban of 1 to 5 years or longer of reentry to the us’

Sara Yarjani, Iranian student

stopped,” she said. “I had previously entered the country and was treated very well ... and gone through customs within minutes.”

This time she quickly realised that it would be different, as the immigration officer took her passport and ushered her to a waiting area.

Two female officers who barked orders patted Yarjani down as she stood against a wall with her arms raised. She was told to remove her shawl, her jewellery and shoe laces, and was asked to hand over any cash as well as her cell phone.

Yarjani said that after four hours of waiting and questioning, during which she was allowed no phone calls, an officer compelled her to sign a form agreeing to deportation on grounds, he claimed, that her student visa was no longer valid.

“The officer told me ‘you have two option — either you comply and agree to leave voluntarily ... or you will forcibly be deported and face a ban of one to five years or longer of reentry to the US’,” she said.

“The way he was saying it was very threatening and I felt I had no choice.” —