Iranian officials reportedly asked American immigration agents to add names to a deportation flight bound for Tehran, even as the two countries traded missiles last summer.
Story Snapshot
- Internal ICE emails released under a public records request show coordination with Iranian officials on three removal flights between September 2025 and January 2026.
- A federal lawsuit accuses ICE of sharing confidential asylum files, including reasons Iranians feared returning home.
- The first flight, in late September, carried more than 50 deportees through Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Cairo, and Doha before landing in Tehran.
- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) calls the asylum-sharing claims false and says agents only handle routine travel paperwork.
A Deportation Surge Ordered From the Top
The push to remove Iranians from the United States reportedly began with a June 19, 2025 order tied to the war against Iran. Public records released by the National Iranian American Council describe leadership acting on White House direction to speed up removals during a tense military standoff, turning routine enforcement into a fast-moving operation with foreign policy stakes attached.
Emails Show a Working Channel With Tehran
Reporting on the released emails describes direct and indirect contact between ICE staff and Iranian interlocutors across three flights. One exchange reportedly shows Iranian officials asking to add names to a passenger list after documents were already issued. Another describes an apparent mix-up where the wrong person ended up on a flight headed for Iran.
The first flight left in late September 2025 with roughly 54 to 55 deportees aboard. It routed through Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Cairo, and Doha before a Qatar Airways transfer carried passengers into Tehran. A flight-monitoring report from Human Rights First logged the operation as an expansion of layover-transfer removals to countries where diplomatic ties remain strained.
Lawsuit Alleges Asylum Files Reached Iranian Hands
Separate from the emails, a federal lawsuit filed by the Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund alleges ICE shared identities, political opinions, and fear-of-return statements from Iranian asylum seekers with Tehran since March 2025. The filing says disclosures happened during meetings, by mail, and by hand delivery of records.
The complaint goes further, alleging Iranian officials got in-person access to detainees held in United States custody, often without their consent. Advocates argue that access created a coercive setting for people already facing removal to a government some fled in the first place, turning a paperwork process into something closer to intimidation.
Government Denies Any Wrongdoing
DHS calls the asylum-sharing allegations flatly false. A department statement says ICE only facilitates consular access and secures travel documents “in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy,” describing the process as standard practice used with governments around the world, not a special arrangement built for Iran.
A White House official told reporters the administration is “utilizing all lawful methods to carry out deportation operations of criminal illegal aliens,” framing the flights as ordinary enforcement rather than a diplomatic favor. DHS has echoed that position, saying it will keep using every lawful option to remove people it says have no right to stay.
A quiet channel between ICE and Iran shaped deportation flights, newly released emails show https://t.co/XTS6l60rBE
— CTV News Winnipeg (@ctvwinnipeg) August 20, 2026
What’s at Stake for Vulnerable Deportees
Reporting says the people caught up in this surge include activists and religious or ethnic minorities, groups that often face the harshest treatment back in Iran. If asylum details truly reached Tehran, that raises the odds returnees get flagged the moment they land, a risk confidentiality rules exist to prevent.
No court has ruled on the legality of any of this yet. The lawsuit remains in its early stages, and the email trove reflects reporter summaries rather than a fully public document set. Still, two separate evidentiary paths converging on the same question, whether Washington helped Tehran track its own critics, deserves scrutiny regardless of party.
Congress has started asking questions, with senators pressing for details on what ICE actually shared and why. Whatever the answer, Americans should expect their government to distinguish between lawful deportation and handing a hostile regime a target list of its dissidents. That line matters, war or no war, and it should not blur under bureaucratic cover.
Sources:
cbsnews.com, theintercept.com, independent.co.uk, x.com, nytimes.com, cnn.com, dhs.gov
