Iranian man freed after judge rejects ICE evidence, later found still detained in Kentucky
A federal magistrate judge in the Western District of Louisiana ordered Alireza Anjomshoa, an Iranian national, released from ICE custody after finding that an affidavit from ICE's assistant New Orleans field office director, Matthew W. Reaves, failed to show his removal was likely. Reaves had argued ICE was working with the State Department and DHS to deport Anjomshoa to a third country, but the judge found the affidavit instead documented 11 months of unsuccessful deportation efforts. His case was one of several in which judges rejected the government's arguments for continuing to detain Iranian nationals amid halted deportations to Iran following the war that began in February 2026. Despite the release order, Anjomshoa has since been held at Oldham County Jail in Kentucky, where he filed an amended habeas corpus petition in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky challenging his continued detention.
