phoenixnewtimes Forty-one-year-old undocumented Tempe resident Mehrzad Asadi Eidivand has been in federal custody since June, when he and his wife were arrested by Homeland Security Investigations agents at their East Valley home. HSI, which is a division of ICE, showed up at the couple’s home without a warrant. Eidivand’s wife, a naturalized U.S. citizen named Linet Vartanniavartanians, called Tempe police. In 911 call audio, she could be heard threatening to shoot the HSI agents if they entered her property. That led to their eventual arrest — Vartannianvartanians for threatening a federal agent and Eidivand for possession of a firearm as an undocumented immigrant. Eidivand’s immigration attorney, Rebecca Cheaves, believed the pair was targeted by HSI in retaliation for Eidivand’s brother going on a hunger strike while in immigration detention in Florence. In late November, Eidivand and Vartanniavartanians took plea deals and were released with time served and two years’ probation. Vartanniavartanians is now free, but Cheaves said Eividand was immediately detained by ICE. For the last three months, he’s been held at the Imperial Regional Detention Facility in Calexico, California. Since Eidivand’s detention by ICE, agents have repeatedly signaled that they want to deport him to Iran by asking him to sign a deportation order without the presence of his attorney, Cheaves said. But back in Iran, she said, Eidivand faces an execution order because of his views against the country’s Islamist regime. Learn more in the full story by Morgan Fischer ( @morgfisch ) at phoenixnewtimes.com (link in bio). View all 120 comments