Saagar Enjeti

So under continuous pressure, they came to the U.S.

when she was 14 and filed for asylum.

They won, and they have since become legal permanent residents.

Now, Rubio's argument that the women don't deserve asylum is odd because one of the top U.S.

complaints about the Iranian government is that they don't respect women's rights.

Now, in general, a grant of asylum is called into question if the asylum seeker travels back to the country where they claimed they feel unsafe.

And that honestly makes sense in general.

But in the case of the two women, the threats they faced were indeed real, and they were in fact representative of what American authorities say about the repressive nature of the government in Iran.

Yet you can also understand that visits home to family would still be relatively safe in their circumstances.

You go to the airport, you visit the cousins, you go to the market, you walk in the park, whatever, you're going to be fine, especially if you're covered up.

Serena told me she went back to Iran and visited her cousins and her father, but stayed away from those she knew were mad at her and told nobody she was coming.

When she returned to the U.S.,

She was honest with customs officials, was questioned for about 45 minutes and let back in.

It never came up again until now.

If the Trump administration insists that their asylum claim is bogus and deports them to Iran,

Rubio will be simultaneously saying that Iran is in fact safe for such women, undercutting decades of American claims to the contrary, while we also are waging a war on Iran partly because we say those women are not safe in Iran.

So which is it?

Serena's friends also disputed characterizations in the press and that were put forward by the State Department that the family had been living lavishly in the United States, pointing out that they had been behind on mortgage payments, that they had been relying on the support of friends to pay for legal support in ICE detention.

In reality, the Los Angeles residents had assimilated to the culture of their new country.

The jewelry and handbags flaunted on Instagram and highlighted by the U.S.