Trump administration held talks with Iran on deporting Iranians during the war, court documents show

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Court documents unsealed on Thursday show that the Trump administration discussed removing Iranian nationals from the United States with Iranian officials while the two countries were at war. The documents say US officials were in contact with Iran over travel papers and possible routes for carrying out deportations. They also record that, by mid-October, the administration had told the court it was considering sending detainees through an unnamed third country. No date for any removals had been set, according to a Justice Department lawyer.

The disclosure comes from a lawsuit brought on behalf of Iranian people held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The plaintiffs allege that US immigration agencies shared confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with Tehran, breaching immigration rules and putting people at risk. The Department of Homeland Security has denied sharing asylum application records with the Iranian government.

At a hearing on 15 October, Judge Ana Reyes questioned the prospect of sending people to a country that the US president had described as an enemy and as lawless, and where he had said protesters had been killed in large numbers. She said deportees could face a serious threat of death. A Justice Department lawyer responded that the government was carrying out lawful removal orders. Reyes subsequently required the government to give the court 24 hours’ notice of any finalised deportation plan and five days’ written notice before carrying one out.

The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which brought the case, said at least 12 detainees had been contacted in the preceding week by Iran’s Interest Section, which operates through Pakistan’s embassy in Washington. The group said they were told of a planned flight to Iran via Pakistan, but did not give a date. The court record separately describes a possible removal route through an unnamed third country. The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Associated Press account foregrounds the wartime contacts and the judge’s concerns about the danger of return, while the second report adds the legal group’s account of the 12 detainees’ notices and the proposed route via Pakistan. The reports describe the possible third-country route in different terms: the court documents cited by AP leave the country unnamed, while the legal group identifies Pakistan as the transit point. Neither account establishes when, or whether, the deportations would take place.

• www.pbs.org
• www.theguardian.com