The son of the Iranian regime spokeswoman who helped hold 52 Americans hostage in 1979 is still in the United States four months after the government revoked his green card — and taxpayers are footing the bill for the delay.

Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife Maryam Tahmasebi, and their teenage son were arrested by federal agents in April after Secretary of State Marco Rubio terminated their lawful permanent resident status. They have remained in ICE custody in Texas ever since, fighting removal through the courts. The longer they stay, the more it costs you.

Hashemi's mother is Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as "Screaming Mary" — the English-language mouthpiece for the Islamist militants who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held dozens of Americans captive for 444 days. She later ascended to serve as a vice president within the Iranian regime. Her son, raised at the heart of a government that calls America the Great Satan, secured a green card and built a life in the United States.

The family has fought their removal with aggressive tactics. They launched a GoFundMe campaign that collected nearly $40,000 before Iranian Americans outraged by the fundraiser pressured the platform to shut it down. Tahmasebi published an essay in The Nation describing her detention as "hell." They have deployed high-priced lawyers to drag out the proceedings.

Now the Institute for Voices of Liberty, an organization advocating for a free Iran, is demanding answers. IVOL's petition — titled "Protect America from the Influence of Iran's Authoritarian Regime" — has drawn almost 14,000 signatures. The group is calling on President Trump, Rubio, DHS, ICE, and the Justice Department to complete the proceedings, explain any legal barriers causing delay, and disclose the total cost to taxpayers.

The legal mechanism exists. IVOL points to Section 237(a)(4)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes removal of a foreign national when the Secretary of State determines their presence could have "potentially serious adverse foreign-policy consequences." Rubio made that determination in April. The family challenged the action, and here we are.

IVOL stressed it respects due process and the family's right to fight in court. "Americans deserve national-security decisions that are lawful, transparent, and carried through without unnecessary delay," the organization said.

The New York Post covered the story in detail. Breitbart did not cover it — a notable omission for an outlet that regularly spotlights immigration enforcement. The Post framed the family's tactics as "brazen"; the core facts speak for themselves.

This is the immigration system working as designed — just not for the people it's supposed to serve. Ordinary Americans wait years for basic adjudications. The family of a senior Iranian regime figure, by contrast, gets months of legal wrangling and a GoFundMe war chest while sitting in detention at your expense. The question isn't whether they have rights. It's why the system always seems to have bandwidth for everyone except the people who actually belong here.

The open question: how much longer, and at what cost?