WASHINGTON — The Trump administration held talks with Iran about deporting Iranian nationals even while the United States was at war with Iran, according to court documents unsealed on Thursday, November 5, and obtained by The Associated Press. The filings show the administration kept in contact with Iranian officials during the war for submitting travel documents and figuring out “possible avenues for removal,” and that as recently as mid-October the government told a federal judge it had plans to deport Iranians through an unnamed third country.
Source: Associated Press
The disclosure immediately affects Iranians held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, the legal group whose lawsuit produced the documents, said at least a dozen Iranian detainees had been notified over the past week that they were being deported to Iran, with some told it could happen as soon as this coming Sunday. None of the detainees who were contacted had been given anything in writing from immigration authorities, the group said.
What the unsealed documents show
Earlier court filings and emails had already shown that the administration held talks with Iran about deportations carried out last year and shortly before the war. The new material shows those contacts did not stop when the fighting started. Hundreds of emails exchanged between U.S. immigration officials, described in the case, show how the two countries worked together to arrange for more than 100 Iranians to be flown back to Iran on three immigration flights in September and December 2025 and January 2026.
On the newest plans, the government has not named the third country it intends to route deportees through, and it has not given a date. At an October 15 hearing, Justice Department attorney Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel told the court there was no specific date set to carry out any removals.
“A serious threat of certain death”: the judge's warning
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who is hearing the case in Washington, pressed the government hard at that October 15 hearing, according to the transcript quoted in the filings. “We are at war with a country where the President of the United States has said, as recently as two or three days ago, if not yesterday, that it is essentially lawless … A country that is an enemy of the United States, according to the current president. A country that, according to our president, murdered tens of thousands of protestors,” Reyes said. “And what you're telling me is that the United States of America is going to send individuals back to that region, facing what you and I and everyone who would ever look at this would know would be, at a minimum, a serious threat of certain death.”
“Yes, your honor,” Georgiev-Remmel answered. “The government is executing lawful orders of removal.” Reyes warned government attorneys at the same hearing that she would initiate contempt proceedings if the administration violated her order. Her order requires the government to give the court 24 hours' notice of any finalized plan to deport Iranians to Iran or to any other country, and five days' written notice before any such deportation is carried out.
Source: Associated Press
The lawsuit behind the disclosure
The documents were unsealed in a lawsuit brought by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which alleges — as an allegation, not a proven finding — that the administration's immigration agencies have been sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government, violating U.S. immigration regulations and endangering countless Iranians. The lawsuit depicts a coordinated campaign between the U.S. and Iranian governments to identify Iranians in ICE custody and pressure them to return to Iran. The Department of Homeland Security has denied that it is sharing asylum application records with the Iranian government. The judge said it was possible the government shared the confidential information, but appeared skeptical of claims that DHS has a coordinated policy of sharing those records.
The human stakes described by the legal group are stark. Yasmine Chubin, the group's executive director, said one detainee attempted suicide once he learned he might be returned to Iran; he was one of two people subsequently moved across state lines to a detention centre where detainees are often sent immediately before a removal. “Some of those same asylum applicants, and others who could face the same death, are being sent back — all against a backdrop of further and intensifying U.S. bombing of Iran,” Chubin said. “This flight must be stopped.” The group said detainees were contacted in the past week by the Iranian Interest Section — the Iranian representative office inside the Pakistani Embassy in Washington that handles consular affairs — and told of an upcoming deportation flight to Iran through Pakistan; some had also been notified by DHS officials.
Why deportations to Iran have historically been rare
Deportations of Iranians to their home country are historically rare, owing to the lack of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran and the possible persecution returnees could face. Under the current administration's broad immigration crackdown, ICE has pushed aggressively to deport people even from countries that have typically been reluctant to take people back, or with which the U.S. has icy or no relations. Where a home country will not accept returnees, the administration has deported people to third countries they have no connection with: during President Trump's second term, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama have accepted noncitizens from the U.S., and in June an Iranian woman was among two dozen migrants the U.S. deported to the Central African Republic.
The case is being watched by immigrant communities across the United States, including the Punjabi diaspora, because it tests how far Washington can go with third-country removals — sending people to a country that is not their own when their home country will not take them — and how much notice a court can force the government to give before a flight leaves. The judge's 24-hour and five-day notice orders now stand between ICE and any Iranian removal flight.
What happens next
In a court filing on Wednesday, the Justice Department argued that the judge's order effectively served as an injunction against the government “given the possibility of sanctions and contempt dangling overhead.” The State Department said it generally does not comment on pending litigation or private diplomatic discussions and referred other questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For now, no removal date has been announced: any finalized plan must be notified to the court within 24 hours, any actual deportation needs five days' written notice, and the Legal Defense Fund says the detainees it represents were told a flight could come as soon as Sunday — a claim the government has not confirmed.