She had already left her apartment and quit her job in Tehran. “All of my efforts and all the money I spent became nothing.”

‘I was in too much shock to even ask for water’

Behzad, 32, who planned to study material sciences at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, was turned back Aug. 19 at Logan Airport.

Behzad hoped to work one day in the automotive industry. But when he arrived in Boston to begin his studies, he was pulled aside.

“The room was an exact replica of what you see in Hollywood movies,” he said. “It was very bright and small. I had to sit in a chair, with no table. A guy behind a computer started to interrogate me.” Behzad said he went through multiple rounds of questioning for about eight hours, and had not slept in nearly two days. “I was in too much shock to even ask for water,” he said.

In Iran, Behzad had worked for a company that designs processing systems for factories, including oil facilities. A C.B.P. officer told him he had violated sanctions by working in the oil industry. Behzad protested that his company was never sanctioned, and that he had worked there only while the Iran nuclear deal, under which many sanctions were not in effect, was in place.

It was to no avail — he was ordered back to Iran.

“They just wanted to find something,” Behzad said.