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Man whose wife was arrested and jailed by ICE maintains his absolute support for Trump [1]

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Date: 2025-07-03

It's a cult

Arthu Sahakyan is a Trump fan. He flies Trump flags on his home. His grade-school kids wear MAGA hats. Nothing will persuade him that his guy isn't the best thing for America since God created the nation in Genesis. Not even the arrest and imprisonment of his wife. The mother of his four children.

The facts

Arpineh Masihi, the woman Sahakyan pledged his troth to, was born in Iran. At the age of three, she arrived in the US as a refugee. She eventually received a green card. Fifteen years ago, it was revoked after a conviction on theft charges. Sahakyan says it was for "misdemeanor stuff" after Masihi cashed a check for "less than $200". And added that they've been going through the legal process ever since to try and regain her citizenship. (I think he means residency.)

The authorities obviously didn't view Masihi as a threat to the nation. She would periodically check in with immigration bureaucrats. They ticked boxes and stamped forms. And gave her a date to return for more paperwork. Sahakyan put it thus to Fox 11 Los Angeles:

"She just went in [for an immigration check-in] in April,. They said you're fine. Have a good day. See you back in September or October."

But this stable state of affairs was upended on Monday. Home surveillance video shows federal agents outside Sahakyan's home. His wife can be seen going inside their house to say goodbye to their four young children. Sahakyan reported:

"She came and kissed the kids and that was it. That was the last time we saw her."

A mind lost to madness

TV footage shows Sahakyan kids weeping at the absence of their mother. But this emotional distress has not yet caused their father to moderate his unconditional love for Trump. He explained:

"Trump is not trying to do anything bad. We understand what he's doing. He wants the best for the country. I'm just trying to make the best of it. I don't want any families to go through this. If they are, I apologize for what they're going through because it's hard."

I suppose you can understand how low-information voters believe that Trump is not trying to do anything bad. Propaganda is powerful. Fear can short-circuit reason. And it is easy to dehumanize strangers.

But this man's wife was arrested by Trump's goons. Her future in the country is in doubt. How much more information does this benighted man need? She obviously isn't a stranger to him.

There is no quit in Sahakyan. He is sticking to his pro-Trump guns even as the object of his adoration rips his family apart.

"I'm very for [the United States vetting] Iranian nationals because of the sleeper cells. I think it will resolve a lot of issues because we'll know exactly who's in here for what reasons, even though I miss [my wife] dearly. I think we could have a faster process [where they determine] she's not a radical, or tied to the crazies, let her out."

"Sleeper cells?" Apparently, he cannot distinguish between Hollywood and reality. I'll grant you there have been instances of foreign terrorist-affiliated individuals uncovered in the US — e.g., the Lackawanna Six (2002), Ali Mohamed (1998), the Illegals Program (2010) — but they are vanishingly rare and have not caused much grief. And none of them involved an Iranian, much less a mother of four who has lived in the US since she was three.

Funding Brown Shirts

In addition to the absurdity of arresting innocent people, there is the expense. The massive piece of budget-busting legislation that just passed the MAGA Congress included $100+ billion for anti-immigrant measures. If you genuinely wanted to keep Americans safe, you would spend that money on cancer research — a disease that kills over 600,000 Americans every year.

However, safety is not Trump's aim. It is a Brown Shirts expense.

A vote for evil

But back to Sahakyan. The easily duped man admits that the arrest of his wife perturbed him — but not enough to alter his obstinate embrace of the agent of his distress. Fox 11 reports:

Sahakyan tells FOX 11 he and his family are proud President Trump supporters. He believes Trump is trying to make the country safer through immigration enforcement efforts. However, he admits his opinion has slightly changed recently. "Somewhat it has just because I'm going through it," said Sahakyan. "I was very selfish before, but what I see now is there's a reason for [this immigration enforcement]."

In case there was any doubt, Sahakyan removes it:

"I'm still supporting [Trump]. Even though my friends say take the flag down, you're going through a lot. I'm like no. The flag stands."

Edmund Burke is credited with saying that "For evil to succeed, it is enough that good people do nothing." Today, you could recast it as, "For evil to succeed, it is enough that dumb people vote for it."

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