Iranian attending college in Boston is denied entry to US

BOSTON (AP) — An Iranian student attending college in Boston was denied entry to the U.S. and ordered to immediately fly back to his native country, despite a court order temporarily staying his removal, immigration lawyers and civil rights groups said Tuesday.

Shahab Dehghani, a 24-year-old student at Northeastern University, arrived on a flight into Boston with a valid student visa but was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol at Logan International Airport, according to his lawyer Kerry Doyle.

Customs officials ordered Dehghani, whose full name is listed as Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein Abadi on federal court filings, to leave on the next available flight because they determined he was intending to reside in the U.S. longer than his temporary student visa allowed, Doyle said.

Doyle denied that was the case.

Dehghani's lawyers said he had attended the University of Massachusetts Boston before transferring to Northeastern, had undergone a nearly one-year visa review and planned to return to Iran when he completed his studies.

“He’s understandably upset,” said Heather Yountz, a lawyer also involved in Dehghani's case. “He’s been a student here in Massachusetts for two years. His life has now been turned around.”

Customs and Border Patrol declined to comment on specifics but said each person seeking entry to the country has the burden to prove they can overcome “all grounds of inadmissibility,” including "health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.”

While he was at the airport Monday, Dehghani's attorneys filed an emergency lawsuit seeking to hold off his removal, which a federal judge quickly...