As Alireza Doroudi faces deportation, his soon-to-be-wife clings to their life together, with or without the ‘American Dream'
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (WIAT) — On Saturday, Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani will celebrate her birthday in Jena, Louisiana.
It's not what she and her fiancé, Alireza Doroudi, had wanted. In fact, it wasn't that long ago the couple were in the middle of planning their wedding, which would've likely happened sometime in the next month or two, followed by a second wedding with their families in Iran.
But that all changed with a knock on their door outside their apartment in Tuscaloosa in the early morning hours of March 25, when U.S. Immigration and Customs agents detained Doroudi, taking him into custody and sending him over 300 miles away to the little Louisiana town where the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center is located. It's where the 32-year-old doctorate student who had been studying mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama has stayed for nearly a month with few answers as to why.
At the time of his arrest, Doroudi had been living in the United States on a revoked visa, which was inexplicably done just months after arriving in the country at the beginning of 2023. However, he had been assured that his student visa was valid–something his attorney, David Rozas, confirmed– and that he would be fine as long as he remained a student at UA. Before being detained by ICE, Doroudi was in the process of applying for permanent residency and was set to graduate next year.
Now, all the plans that Doroudi and Bajgani had for their life together are in question.
'I feel like I've shattered,' Bajgani said during a Zoom call as she was getting ready to leave with a friend for Louisiana Friday morning. 'I've broken into pieces.'
The last month has been hard on the couple, made even harder by an immigration judge's recent decision not to grant bond to Doroudi, considering him a flight risk. In their argument for his deportation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claimed he posed 'significant national security concerns,' despite failing to elaborate on what those concerns were.
Bajgani and Doroudi cried together as they spoke on the phone after his hearing, where they continued to talk about the life they still want to build together. The only difference this time is whether it would involve 'the American dream' or something else entirely.
The couple first met in 2022 at the U.S. Embassy in Oman, where they were both applying for student visas to the United States. She said that while Doroudi waited seven months to be approved for a visa, she had to wait nearly a year.
Before long, they two were in America, he a doctoral student at UA and she studying educational psychology at Mississippi State University. Seeing as they were only an hour and a half away from each other, they decided to meet.
'He came with friends to Starkville, where I was studying at Mississippi State and we started dating right after,' she said. 'I think I was the one who initiated everything.'
Describing their quiet life in Tuscaloosa, Bajgani didn't speak about their respective workloads as students at the University of Alabama, but of cooking Persian food together in their apartment, hiking in north Alabama, white water rafting with her in West Virginia, and slowly building a life together. Maybe that would include a pet, maybe that would include children, but it would be done together.
'His aspiration is to be a good person, a virtuous person,' she said. 'He's the kindest and most generous person I have ever met.'
In their phone calls to one another, Bajgani spoke about how despite his dilemma, Doroudi is staying focused on his future, asking her to send him his school books, as well as his English and vocabulary books. This weekend, she hopes she can give him more by being there with him.
'I just want to go there and say 'I love you Alireza. Everything is going to be fine' and give him some encouraging words,' she said. 'I wish I could hold his hand but they don't let me hold his hand because it's over that glass door, but that's just how it is.'
Going through the emotion turmoil of Doroudi's detainment, Bajgani said she feels like she is in a prison herself, unable to focus on her work and constantly worried for his safety. At times, it has made both of them despondent about what could be in store for them.
'We were thinking that if the court or the people who are deciding for Alireza don't consider true information and what he really is, preferring to come up with something to portray him as a threat, what is the worth of fighting in this court,' she said. 'What is the worth of paying lots of money and fighting in this court and staying apart from one another.'
If Doroudi is ultimately deported and sent back to Iran, Bajgani is not afraid of going back. For her, she's afraid of what could happen if they continued to stay. It was made all the more clear after his bond was denied, despite no evidence that he is dangerous or would flee the country.
'When we saw that, we kind of lost our hope for America, for both of us,' she said. Even if they let us stay, we would've completed our degrees and we would've left in the earliest time. This is not a place to live. This is not a place to live the happy life and dream. This is not the freedom and American dream that they always talk about. It's just something that is just for a group of people, not for everyone.'
Bajgani hopes she and Doroudi can find that home where they can both thrive, if not in the US.
'I wish we could have that happy dream somewhere in this universe,' she said. 'I believe there is somewhere for both of us that they will understand how good we are, how good and pure of people we are. We are kind and are considerate of other people and we are nothing like a threat to the community.'
With many questions that remain unanswered, Bajgani hopes that those who hold Doroudi's fate in the balance do the right thing.
'I want to say that you can always choose the right, even though you have chosen the wrong,' she said. 'Please choose the right.'
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