On April 7, 1980, President Carter gave an address that outlined sanctions against the government of Iran for its refusal to accept the hostages taken from the American embassy in November 1979. The embassy was occupied by militants who said they were willing to turn over the hostages, but the Iranian government refused to accept responsibility for them.

In the complicated field of diplomacy, this action was a de facto admission by the Iranian government that it favored their continued imprisonment. Had the Iranian government accepted the hostages, it would have been responsible for their well-being and would have been subject to much greater diplomatic pressure.

Carter saw the diplomatic subterfuge for what it was, and on April 7, he announced sanctions. Those included breaking diplomatic relations with Iran, an embargo against Iran, freezing Iranian assets in the U.S. and:

"Fourth, the Secretary of Treasury [State] and the Attorney General will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly."

Why did Carter issue that fourth item? It was largely for security reasons. With the embassy's equipment at their disposal, the militants occupying it could have issued fake visas for entry to the United States, pre-dated before the Nov. 4 seizure of the embassy. "The action is not intended," the New York Times reported, "to invalidate visas in the hands of Iranians in this country, who are already subject to scrutiny to insure they are not violating the terms of their entry."

Shortly after the embassy seizure, the Immigration and Naturalization service had established special border checks for people arriving from Iran or on Iranian visas. Those special rules were ruled unconstitutional by a U.S. District Court, then upheld on appeal. Nevertheless, the United States admitted 11,000 people on Iranian visas between Nov. 4, 1979 and April 7, 1980. Many were Jews or Baha'i, folks fleeing religious persecution as a result of the Iranian Revolution.

After Carter's announcement, many Iranians said they were scared of being expelled from the United States if their visas expired. They feared persecution for Western ideas or religious differences. One man told the Times: "The scary thing is that all the businessmen who were committed to Western values in Iran had to leave Iran for that reason, and now America is throwing them out because it presumes they are committed to Islamic values."

Ten days after the April 7 announcement, Carter warned that the U.S. would consider military action if the sanctions proved ineffective. Secretly, Carter was already planning Operation Eagle Claw, a daring rescue mission that would culminate in the Desert One debacle and the imprisonment of the hostages for another nine months.