TUSCALOOSA, Alabama — A court is demanding additional information before determining whether to grant bond to an Iranian student in Alabama who was detained by immigration agents in Tuscaloosa last month and may face deportation.
Alireza Doroudi was scheduled to have a bond hearing Monday afternoon at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Centre in Jena, Louisiana, where he has been detained for more than two weeks after ICE investigators raided his apartment near the University of Alabama. Doroudi was in the process of earning his doctorate in mechanical engineering.
According to attorney David Rozas, Judge Maithe Gonzalez ordered that both he and the US government give additional information before deciding on bond. Gonzalez later scheduled another hearing on Thursday afternoon.
According to Rozas, Doroudi’s visa was unexpectedly withdrawn shortly after he landed in the United States from Iran in 2023. Rozas said that his Doroudi SEVIS (student and exchange visiting program) permit was still valid, and that he was applying for permanent residency at the time of his detention.
Despite the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s declaration that Doroudi posed “significant national security concerns,” no explanation has been provided for why the 32-year-old doctorate student constituted a security danger. Doroudi has no criminal record other than a speeding ticket in 2023, and his lawyers maintain he has never supported terrorist groups or shown anti-American attitude.
“With the words of his fiancé, he is a nerd,” Rozas told The Associated Press shortly after Doroudi was arrested. “All he does is study and is literally trying to fulfil his dream, the American dream, of becoming a researcher and professor of mechanical engineering.”
Doroudi is residing at the same ICE facility as Mahmoud Khalil, a PhD student at Columbia University in New York City who was recently ordered deported by another judge after the government labelled him a “national security risk” for his involvement in pro-Palestinian activities. Khalil’s counsel are currently challenging the judgement.
A master hearing in which Doroudi and his lawyers will be able to argue why he should not be removed from the United States has yet to be scheduled.