A newly filed lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration shared confidential information with Tehran about Iranian asylum seekers as it worked to deport them from the United States, placing them prone to “persecution, torture, and death following their arrival in Iran.”
According to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday within the US District Court of the District of Columbia, many Iranian asylum seekers within the US are pro-democracy protestors, members of spiritual minorities, or members of the LGBTQ group – individuals who would face grave dangers in the event that they had been pressured to return to Iran.
The lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, appearing Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement David Venturella, and their respective companies as defendants.
It was filed by Public Citizen on behalf of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.
“These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson stated in an electronic mail to NCS.
The State Department had no remark on the lawsuit.
The State Department’s newest human rights report, issued underneath the Trump administration, stated there are “significant human rights issues” in Iran.
As a part of its extreme deportation agenda, the Trump administration has carried out no less than three deportation flights to take away dozens of Iranians from the US, together with one as lately as January when lethal crackdowns in opposition to anti-government protests had been sweeping Iran. The lawsuit claims the US is working with the Iranian Government “on another mass deportation flight to Iran in the coming weeks.”
The lawsuit notes that “in carrying out removals, the United States government may coordinate logistics with government officials of the receiving country, but federal regulations prohibit sharing of information that would reveal or infer that the individual to be removed had applied for asylum in the United States,” as a result of sharing such information “could subject the individual to persecution upon repatriation or endanger the applicant’s family members who may still be residing in the country of origin.”
It alleges that the administration has supplied particulars “on hundreds of Iranian detainees seeking asylum” to the Iranian authorities as it sought to deport them underneath a uncommon settlement between Washington and Tehran, which should not have diplomatic relations. That settlement was reached in March 2025, in accordance to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that the main points had been shared each throughout month-to-month conferences between ICE and Iranian Government officers and “periodically” by mail. It additionally alleges that ICE has coordinated in-person conferences with Iranian authorities officers and dozens of Iranians in ICE custody, and that many of those conferences had been held with out the consent of the detainees.
“According to Iranian detainees who met with an Iranian Interest Section official, the official had knowledge of their immigration cases, including the details of their asylum applications,” the lawsuit says.
The plaintiffs are asking the court docket to declare the cease the sharing of the confidential information, declare the coverage of doing so to be “unlawful,” to establish and notify asylum seekers whose information was shared with the Iranian authorities and cease any deportations till such work is completed.
The DHS spokesperson stated ICE is “committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to communicate with their consular representatives” and supplies them “the opportunity to contact their consular post and facilitates consular access to detained individuals, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy.”
“ICE meets and works to get travel documents for detainees with every country,” the spokesperson stated, noting they “will continue to use all lawful options to deport illegal aliens.”