This article originally appeared on Iran So Far Away and was republished with permission.
Since 2017, Iranians have widely discussed reports that the Obama administration granted a number of U.S. Green Cards (variously reported as 2,500 or 2,800) to Khomeiniist regime leaders as part of a secret codicil to the 2015 nuclear deal, the JCPOA.
This allegation was first published on February 14th of that year by Amad News, an outlet founded by dissident Ruhollah Zam, who was later lured into a trap by IRGC intelligence, forcibly taken to Iran, summarily tried, and then executed in 2020. At the time, the story did not gain traction in the West, though it was covered by prominent outlets such as Al Arabiya.
Escalation and Wider Coverage (2018)
The allegation received wider coverage in 2018 when Hojjatoleslam Mojtaba Zolnour, an opponent of then-president Hassan Rouhani, raised the matter in an interview with the Iranian newspaper Etemad. Zolnour added that 30 to 40 children of top Khomeinist officials were then studying in the United States, while many others were “wasting Iranian public assets” to live “extravagant lives” there.
His remarks were later echoed by Fox News and appeared to be reinforced by President Donald Trump. On July 3, 2018, Trump tweeted: “Just out that the Obama Administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians – including to government officials. How big (and bad) is that?”
Iranians of all political persuasions also continued to appeal to the Trump Administration for confirmation of the Green Card story and, if applicable, disclosure of the recipients.
For example, on August 1, 2018, former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked: “Mr. Donald Trump; release the list of relatives of Iranian Government officials that (sic) have Green Cards and bank accounts in the United States; if you have such a list.”
Denials, Iranian Infighting, and Investigations (2018–2019)
Representatives of both the former Obama Administration and then–foreign minister Mohammad Javid Zarif quickly denied Trump’s claim, while liberal press outlets in the U.S. largely dismissed it as slander unworthy of further comment.
Yet within Iran, Rouhani’s rivals seized on the issue to discredit him and his advisers, and the Islamic regime’s parliament (Majles) opened investigations to identify possible Green Card recipients.
In 2019, Javad Karimi Qoddousi, a member of the Majles’s national security committee, published on his website a list of 71 influential regime figures whom he claimed had documented foreign permanent residency for themselves or family members.
Hassan Rouhani and one of his then–vice presidents, Massoumeh Ebtekar—infamous for her role as spokesperson for the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage-takers—were on the list.
As the Jerusalem Post commented at the time, “Ebtekar’s son, Issa Hashemi, lives in the United States and is a doctoral student at the Los Angeles branch of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology…Rouhani’s nephew…studied at the City College of New York and now works in the city.”
U.S. Response (Late 2018)
Trump’s then–special envoy on Iran, Brian Hook, responded to these calls in a video message in December 2018, saying—seemingly conceding that Green Cards had in fact been issued—“I have to admit that this is another example of the hypocrisy of the regime,” Hook said.
“While regime officials chant ‘Death to America’, they send their families to the so called ‘Great Satan’ to live and study here, using the resources of the Iranian people. I can tell you that we are working on it, and while I can’t discuss individual cases or internal policy deliberations, you can be sure that we are pursuing all options to pressure the corrupt hypocrites in your government to change their behavior.”
Stall and Loss of Momentum (2019–2024)
After that, however, the matter appeared to stall. No public investigation was launched, and no further statements were forthcoming from Trump or his cabinet. Then came the 2020 election, and any chance of additional clarity on the Green Card issue seemed a nonstarter during the administration of Joe Biden.
A Renewed Attempt to Raise the Question (2024)
In June 2024, the author of this article proposed publishing an open letter to Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, urging him to fulfill Trump’s and Hook’s promises by investigating whether Green Cards were indeed traded as part of the JCPOA.
In preparing to do so, I translated several Farsi-language articles on the subject in the hope that Johnson or his staff would read them and take interest. However, an editor at an esteemed American research group told me that the topic was too speculative and unfounded to appear in print.
New Reporting and Apparent Confirmation (2026)
By 2026, however, after the U.S. and Israel began strikes against the Islamic Republic, Trump started taking action against relatives of regime officials living in the United States, deporting them to Iran. In this context, a particularly interesting article appeared in Tablet Magazine on May 6, 2026. Titled “Princelings of Persia” and written by Peter Theroux, it opens as follows:
I used to dismiss what I thought was an urban myth that, to help sell Tehran on the nuke deal, President Barack Obama granted thousands of Iranian spies a backdoor path to residence and ultimately citizenship in the United States…”
Discussing Ebtekar’s son, Eisa Hashemi, Theroux writes:
“Incredibly enough, this scion of two embassy hostage takers “entered the United States in 2014 in visas issued by the Obama administration,” according to a statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on April 11…”
Taken together, the renewed reporting helps move the discussion from rumor and partisan accusation to a question that can be examined with specific names, dates, and immigration actions. The remaining issue is how to interpret this pattern—and what responsibilities it places on U.S. institutions and the press.
Assessment: What the Pattern Suggests
As Theroux rightly notes, it strains credulity to treat as coincidence the apparent issuance of so many Green Cards to relatives of Tehran power-brokers within the same time period.
This circumstantial pattern provides strong grounds for concluding that some form of Green Card facilitation did occur around the time of the JCPOA, even if it was not a precise quid pro quo exchange of the kind Iranian sources originally asserted.
If Green Card facilitation occurred at scale—even informally—it becomes not only a historical question about the JCPOA era, but also a present-day question of enforcement, transparency, and national security.
Implications and Enforcement
President Trump, by directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to search for these individuals and send them back to Iran, is not only protecting his country’s security from possible spies and infiltrators; he is also responding to the desire of the Iranian people.
Having watched their country driven toward economic ruin by rulers who chant “Death to America,” many can only smirk in anger when they see the families of those same rulers—who appropriated national wealth—spending it on lives of luxury in the very same “Great Satan,” America. ICE’s actions, however, are only a beginning. If there are more than 2,000 Green Card recipients, then many more may remain to be located, apprehended, and deported.
Media and Accountability
The media’s response to this issue reveals how much still needs correction in its work. If liberal-leaning outlets can be presumed to have ignored the story because of opposition to Trump—or even outright sympathy for Tehran—the record of so-called conservative or independent media is no better. Timidity in publishing stories out of fear of being branded “fake news” by a biased chorus is not how journalism should function.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/06/obama-secretly-gifted-thousands-green-cards-radical-iranian/
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