One woman is a linguistics scholar at Stony Brook University. Another, the wife of a man in Ohio, who tearfully told him that they wouldn't be reunited after she returned from visiting her family in Iran.
The two women were among more than a dozen held at John F. Kennedy International Airport, caught up by President Donald Trump's restrictive executive order on immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.
Six people remained detained at JFK on Sunday evening, said U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley. He said all were expected to be released Sunday night.
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Iman Alknfushe, who has a green card, was released Sunday afternoon where her family and crowds of supporters were waiting.
"We are very happy," her daughter said.
One of the detainees is Parisa Fasihianifard, a 24-year-old who was visiting family members in Iran before she returned to the U.S. Saturday to be with her husband, who lives in Ohio. The meeting never was — she called him saying she was detained because of the president's executive order.
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Fasihianifard told her spouse she was interviewed in a small room for 14 hours. She managed to sleep in a chair, but she woke up to her fate hanging in the balance. Her husband tells News 4 she's now been detained for more than 24 hours.
Also detained was Vahideh Rasekhi, a Ph.D. candidate in her 30s studying linguistics at SUNY Stony Brook. Rasekhi arrived Saturday afternoon; her friends told News 4 she was interviewed for over 12 hours.
Before she was put on a plane at 1 a.m., officials told Rasekhi she was going back to Iran before she was told to disembark the plane.
Rasekhi was released shortly before noon, according to United Nations Correspondent for BBC's Persian Service Balman Kalbasi, who tweeted a photo of her after her release.
