The young woman became the face of migrants deported by the United States to Panama. She was locked up in a hotel, detained in a camp in the Darién jungle and stranded in a country where she knew neither the language nor anyone else. Later, she lent her name to a bill in Congress aimed at providing more protection to some migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
The woman, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 28-year-old Iranian Christian convert, has now found a home — in Canada. In June, the Canadian government granted her asylum, a happy bookend to her nearly two-year journey fleeing religious persecution in Iran only to get entangled in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Ms. Ghasemzadeh arrived on Denman Island near Vancouver in early July with few belongings other than clothes. But her heart, she said, was filled with gratitude and hope for a new beginning.
“I’m still kind of in shock. I can’t believe I’m really here and this is not a dream,” Ms. Ghasemzadeh said in a telephone interview. “I can finally say the struggle is over.”
Ms. Ghasemzadeh left Iran for Mexico in December 2024 with her brother, Shahin, also a Christian covert, and entered the United States by jumping over a wall on the southern border. Border patrol officers caught and transferred them to detention facilities, separating them. In February 2025, she was shackled and put on a U.S. military plane heading to Panama.
That flight was the Trump administration’s first experiment with deporting migrants to a third country, meaning a place where they are not citizens. Since then, third-country flights have gone to at least 18 countries including Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Central African Republic, among others. The Trump administration, despite its acute hostility toward Iran’s government, has nonetheless worked with it to send at least two deportation flights directly to Iran.
For Ms. Ghasemzadeh, the prospect of being sent back to Iran was terrifying. Iran’s law considers leaving Islam for another faith as blasphemy, punishable by death. Christians born to the faith are free to practice but converts attend secret underground churches and prayer groups to evade arrest and persecution.
“I wanted to live freely, to live without fear, to live without someone wanting to kill me,” Ms. Ghasemzadeh said in an interview in 2025.
After Ms. Ghasemzadeh and her fellow deportees were flown out of the United States, Panama had locked them in a hotel in Panama City and later transported them in the middle of the night to a migrant detention camp in the Darién jungle, where they were held for weeks.
Ms Ghasemzadeh had a singular role in drawing the world’s attention to their plight. She made a social media video that went viral and with her smuggled cellphone provided updates to The New York Times. The coverage gained wide attention, including from Christian advocacy organizations and rights activists. A group of high-profile immigration lawyers took on the case pro bono and won the deportees’ release from jungle detention.
Panama, facing lawsuits and an international uproar, granted the deportees a 90-day humanitarian visa. Many eventually left Panama, but Ms. Ghasemzadeh decided to stay and search for a legal path to North America. She hoped to be reunited with her brother, who was granted asylum in the United States this year and now lives in Texas.
In May 2025, Representative Yassamin Ansari, a Democrat from Arizona who is Iranian American, introduced legislation in Congress called the Artemis Act. The bill sought to prohibit the expedited removal of individuals fleeing countries that the State Department says persecute religious minorities and to ensure they have the chance to claim asylum in a U.S. immigration court. The legislation had widespread support from Democrats but faced opposition from Republicans, who hold the majority in the House.
Lawyers said they told Ms. Ghasemzadeh that the chances of the United States reversing its decision and allowing her back were slim given the political climate around the immigration issue.
Immigrating to Canada presented its own challenges. The country had a quota for refugees and required a Canadian citizen to sponsor their applications. She did not know anyone in Canada.
Meanwhile, Ms. Ghasemzadeh said, she tried to build a life in Panama City. She found a church, learned Spanish, made friends and worked as a dental hygienist.
In Canada, Ian and Naomi Elliot, a retired couple who run programs for their local Afghan refugee community, read a profile of Ms. Ghasemzadeh in The Times anddecided to sponsor her asylum application. The couple said they had helped an Afghan and an Ethiopian secure asylum in Canada.
“I couldn’t sleep after reading the article. I thought this is a Christian sister who shares our faith and is paying a massive price for this belief,” said Mr. Elliot, 68, who works with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and is a community leader at their small church on Denman Island.
The Elliots undertook a monthslong effort, contacting Canadian officials, refugee aid agencies and activists, while consulting lawyers in three different countries. The couple prayed for her every night. But “everywhere we tried, the door was shut,” said Mr. Elliot, because Canada’s quota for privately sponsored refugees in 2025 had been filled and there was a long waiting list.
Then shortly before Christmas, they said, they received an unexpected call. City of Refugees, an agency that facilitates the resettlement of persecuted Christians in Canada, called Mr. Elliot. The agency had a cancellation and would give the spot to Ms. Ghasemzadeh.
The agency gave Mr. Elliot 48 hours to submit her paperwork, find a church to sponsor her and put up $25,000. The first two tasks were easy, but coming up with the money on short notice was difficult. He called an American lawyer in Texas who had helped Ms. Ghasemzadeh’s brother, and although the two had never met, the lawyer wired money to Mr. Elliot’s bank account.
Ms. Ghasemzadeh had only a few days to get ready for her departure, she said.
“The first thing I thought was that I don’t have to worry about getting displaced again,” she recalled. “I can finally get my own place and not live in shelters. I want to go to university and study dental hygiene or dentistry, and then travel freely without fear.”
In Canada, the Elliots were preparing for her arrival, outfitting her future bedroom with a desk, chair, mirror and a green plant, as well as new sheets and curtains. They also bought her a bathing suit, which she would need for summering on the island.
“Big hearts make a huge difference. It all worked out like a miracle,” said Naomi Elliot, 65, who said her parents and grandparents survived the Holocaust in Europe and later migrated to Canada.
On the day of her arrival, Mr. Elliot and his friends drove excitedly to the nearby airport, while Ms. Elliot stayed home to prepare a lunch feast. They brought flowers, gifts and signs that said “Welcome Artemis” in English and Persian.
When she arrived, Ms. Ghasemzadeh ran to Mr. Elliot and hugged him tightly. “Thank you for saving my life,” she told him. They both cried.
