ICE, Iran coordinated deportation flights amid tensions

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials coordinated directly with Iranian representatives to organize three deportation flights that returned more than 100 Iranian nationals to Tehran between September 2025 and January 2026, newly released internal emails reveal. The records show Iranian officials influenced passenger manifests and that the operation was pushed as a priority by the Trump administration, even as the United States and Israel engaged in a 12-day military conflict with Iran in June 2025.

The emails, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by the National Iranian American Council and first reported by the Associated Press, detail a quiet working relationship between the two governments despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties. Iranian representatives communicated requests through its interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and sometimes directly with ICE officials. One email from an ICE official in late August 2025 states, “Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases,” ahead of the first flight on September 29, 2025. Another official noted meeting with the “Director at the Iranian Embassy” to amend manifests...