(RNS) — Two Iranian Christian asylum-seekers were arrested by masked federal agents in Los Angeles on Tuesday (June 24), days after a wider sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targeting Iranian nationals in the U.S. in the wake of the recent conflict between the U.S. and Iran.
In a three-minute video clip captured by their pastor and posted on Instagram, a couple can be seen flanked by agents wearing vests emblazoned with “border patrol federal agents.” As the husband is arrested, the wife can be seen convulsing on the ground in what the pastor, Ara Torosian, described as a panic attack.
The woman had called Torosian, hoping he might be able to intervene in the arrest, he said. The pastor told the agents the husband was an asylum-seeker as they carried out the arrest, to which one responded, “It doesn’t matter, sir, we’re just following orders, he’s got a warrant,” according to the video footage.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, said the couple had been flagged “as subjects of national security interest.”
“During a targeted enforcement operation in Los Angeles, Border Patrol agents apprehended two Iranian nationals unlawfully present in the U.S.,” the CBP spokesperson said in a statement to RNS.
After her panic attack, immigration agents escorted the woman to Ronald Reagan UCLA …