WANA (Jul 15) – A U.S. judge has ordered the release of an Iranian student who had been detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in Louisiana.

 

Pouria Pourhossein Hendabad, 29, a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU), was arrested on June 22, 2025, at his residence in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in coordination with state police.

 

Some reports indicate that his arrest came one day after the United States announced it had bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran. Certain sources claim he was detained for protesting those attacks, though official records do not specify any clear reason for the arrest. It was also reported that his wife, Parisa Firoozabadi, was arrested with him but was soon released, as her name did not appear in official CBP documents.

 

Pourhossein’s attorneys say the arrest was carried out using an “illegal ruse.” State police officers first approached his apartment under the pretext of investigating a hit-and-run accident, but he and his wife were then handed over to a team of masked ICE agents. Following his arrest, Pouria was held at a CBP processing center in Louisiana, one of the agency’s largest detention facilities in the southern U.S.

 

Now, more than three weeks after the incident, Joseph H. L. Perez-Montes, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, has ordered Pouria Pourhossein Hendabad’s immediate release. The judge cited the risk of “serious and irreparable harm” to the defendant’s freedom and rights as the basis for the ruling.

 

Pouria holds a valid F-1 student visa valid through December 2030. Under the judge’s order, deportation or transfer is no longer an option, with the court explicitly forbidding the U.S. government from removing or transferring him. His arrest occurred even though the government’s attorney in the case failed to present any evidence or account justifying it.

 

Pouria Pourhossein has now been released from custody and is under legal protection in light of the ruling. He can continue his studies at LSU and is currently in a legally secure position. However, further proceedings are expected, and his attorneys are likely to pursue constitutional claims against CBP in the next stages of the case.