Despite the war, the US and Iran are working together to deport asylum seekers, the lawsuit says
As It Happened6:30US shared information on asylum seekers with Iranian regime, lawsuits claim
While the US is fighting Iran and encouraging its citizens to take to the streets, the Trump administration has been working with the government to expedite the deportation of dissidents, according to a new indictment.
Since March 2025, the US government has been sharing personal information on asylum-seekers’ cases with the Iranian government, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the left-leaning Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund (ALDF).
It alleges that the US government has hosted federal officials in US immigration detention centers to intimidate Iranians into returning to the country where they could face imprisonment, torture or death.
“We have a tradition of trying to be a beacon of hope for those who are fleeing political persecution and religious persecution, and we betrayed those secrets,” Connecticut immigration attorney Cyrus Mehri, a co-founder of ALDF, said. As It Happened hosted by Nil Kӧksal. “It just breaks my heart.”
Prisoners describe meetings with state officials
The US government has denied these allegations, which have never been found in court.
But the ALDF says it has collected numerous corroborating accounts that paint a clear picture of two seemingly hostile regions working together against those fleeing persecution.
The non-profit organization filed 11 affidavits from Iranian asylum seekers in Customs and Enforcement (ICE) custody.
They include Christian converts, anti-regime protesters and 2SLGBTQ+ people who recount torture, beatings, imprisonment and harassment by the Iranian regime.
United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations says the vessel was hit by an unidentified projectile in the Strait of Hormuz. The US has also increased its strikes against Iran after announcing the death of a third service member over the weekend.
One woman said in her sworn statement that she was waiting at a detention center in Arizona for her asylum application to be processed, when she and other Iranian detainees were taken to a room to meet with a man described by ICE as an Iranian embassy official.
“When I saw him, I felt cold,” said the woman, whose name is PM, in her handwritten statement. “He was like a king.”
The man had a list of Iranian prisoners’ names, he wrote, and knew intricate details about their asylum applications, including information they had disclosed only to US immigration officials.
Therefore, one asylum seeker in this Arizona facility, wrote in a sworn statement that the presence of an Iranian official spreads fear among Iranian asylum seekers.
“Many of us fled Iran to escape oppression, political persecution or religious persecution,” SO wrote. “His presence in US prisons was terrifying.”
All the asylum seekers said the Iranian officials they met urged them to sign documents agreeing to return to Iran.
Many said they were threatened with deportation to Africa if they refused to sign.
An internal source
Mehri says those early accounts are supported by information from a senior Iranian official who reached out to him in March 2026 to warn of a new immigration policy between the US and Iran.
“Under this tough policy, the US was seeking the help of the Islamic State to eliminate Iranians fleeing Iran who are legitimately knocking on America’s doors,” Mehri said.
The lawsuit does not name the official who spoke to Mehri, but says he works with the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, DC, which provides de facto diplomatic and diplomatic services between Iran and the US.
The source said the two governments hold monthly meetings to share information on hundreds of asylum cases. These meetings, the lawsuit alleges, were followed by numerous deportation flights to Iran, as reported by the New York Times.
“I asked him directly, ‘Does the United States government make agreements or get guarantees of safety for the Women Life Freedom protesters, the pro-democracy protesters?’ Mehri said. “The answer was no.”
And there were no procedures to protect Iranian Christians or 2SLGBTQ+, he said.
Meetings stopped before Feb. 28, when war broke out between Iran and the US, the lawsuit says.
But as the dispute continued, the lawsuit says ICE “continued to email or hand-deliver packages of documents to the Department of Iranian Interests.”
“Don’t forget, we are at war with Iran. Why are we turning asylum seekers into Iran on a silver platter?” Mehri said. “It seems that the US government and the Iranian government do not seem to agree on anything, except this.”
Suit seeks to halt information sharing with Iran
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, DC, names ICE, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as defendants.
DHS, which oversees ICE, has denied wrongdoing.
“These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are false,” a DHS spokesperson told CBC via email.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to contact their consular representatives. In accordance with established agreements, ICE provides illegal aliens with the opportunity to contact their consular office and facilitates consular access for persons in custody, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit calls on the US government to immediately stop sharing information with Iran, disclose to any current asylum seekers if their privacy has been compromised and stop the deportation of Iranians.
“This has to end soon,” said Mehri. “America is better than this.”
