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Trump let Andrew Tate in while a woman fleeing religious persecution is languishing in Panama [1]

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Date: 2025-03-01

Until Trump’s outrageous behavior with Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, the most disgraceful moment for his White House this week came when it strongarmed Romania into lifting travel restrictions on Andrew Tate despite credible accusations that the former wrestler and right-wing influencer engaged in sex trafficking.

It was already amply established that Trump really doesn’t give a damn about protecting victims of sex trafficking, despite his diehards’ efforts to convince us otherwise. After all, when it emerged that his original Labor Secretary, Alex Acosta, crafted an outrageous and illegal non-prosecution agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, Trump allowed Acosta to at least appear to resign decently rather than fire him on the spot. But pressing for Tate to have his travel restrictions lifted even though he has the means to abscond should put that beyond any doubt.

But as I note at my Substack, this is even more obscene in light of a report that ran in The New York Times shortly before Tate’s restrictions were lifted. An Iranian woman who recently converted to Christianity fled here in hopes of avoiding the horrific prosecution that Christians face under the mullahs. But after being caught in Trump’s deportation dragnet, she’s languishing in a Panamanian camp.

Last Sunday, The Times profiled Artemis Ghasemzadeh, who discovered Christianity in 2019 and gradually eased away from Islam. She did so at considerable risk; while Christians are nominally protected minorities in Iran, this isn’t respected in practice. For years, practicing Christians have faced severe persecution. By 2024, Ghasemzadeh and her brother, Shahin, concluded the only way forward was to flee Iran for the United States.

However, Artemis and Shahin were caught by border agents just after they slipped over the border between Tijuana and San Diego. She claims to have repeatedly told authorities that she was a Christian convert seeking asylum, but no one listened. On Feb. 12, she was bundled onto a military plane bound for Panama, where she met nine other Iranian Christian converts—three of whom were children. Their stories were all similar. After spending a week under guard at a hotel, they were taken to a camp in the jungle where they’ve been ever since.

As appalling as this was, Ghasemzadeh tells the Old Grey Lady that while at the hotel, she and her compatriots were presented with documents that would have opened the door for them to be repatriated to Iran. They all refused to sign them, and they were sent to the camp. They are currently fighting to keep Panama from sending them back to Iran, then hoping to be granted asylum in the United States.

The most telling thing about this is who hasn’t said anything. On paper, Ghasemzadeh would have two strong voices in this White House—the American Center for Law and Justice and Franklin Graham. The ACLJ may be actively trying to gut the First Amendment, but it also advocates for persecuted Christians around the world. But it hasn’t said a word about Ghasemzadeh. Neither has Graham, despite his past advocacy for persecuted Christians—including two of Ghasemzadeh’s countrymen, Saeed Abedini and Naghmeh Panahi.

Their silence is even more obscene considering that Trump had no qualms about sending Richard Grenell in to strongarm Bucharest into allowing Tate to travel. And yet, despite all the talk that Trump is the champion of Christians, Ghasemzadeh and her nine colleagues were still caught in the vortex of deportation. Let this stand as more proof that Trump has been swindling the American people.

There’s more where this came from at my Substack, Loud, Liberal, Christian. I’d appreciate it if you subscribe, and get a paid subscription if it’s in your budget. Paid subscriptions support my work, and are especially appreciated since I’m not willing to compromise my safety by being on Twitter.

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