On April 3, 2026, ICE arrested Iranian asylees Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her adult daughter Sarina Hosseiny outside Los Angeles after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their green cards in a public statement identifying them as the niece and grandniece of slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. A subsequent Drop Site News investigation reviewing Iranian birth records, identification papers, and family wills found no familial connection to the late general — a finding corroborated by Soleimani's own surviving daughters in Iran. The women remain held at the South Texas ICE Processing Center in San Antonio pending removal to Iran, where Hamideh, who has autoimmune hemolytic anemia, is reportedly being denied the transfusion treatment her condition requires.
On April 3, 2026, the National Park Service awarded a $6.9 million no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings — a Virginia firm that had never previously held a federal contract — to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and paint its basin blue. President Donald Trump said he personally selected the firm, citing its work on his private swimming pools, and the administration invoked a competitive-bidding exemption reserved for urgent situations without claiming the injury that exemption requires, citing instead Trump's wish to finish before the July 4 celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary. Government documents reported by The New York Times indicate the cost has already more than tripled the roughly $2 million Trump publicly promised and could exceed $12 million.
