The Trump Administration Plans To Deport Iranians Amid Deadly Crackdown in Iran
With thousands of people dead in Iran, the Trump administration still plans to go ahead with a deportation flight as early as this weekend.
President Donald Trump has threatened war with Iran if the government harms its own people. But he's also planning to hand over Iranians, some of whom may face the death penalty, to that government. On Thursday, the nonprofit National Iranian American Council warned that it had learned about a planned deportation flight to Iran. On Friday, a lawyer for two gay Iranians set to be deported confirmed the story to MS NOW and CNN.
"The same administration that promised Iranians that 'help is on the way' amid a deadly crackdown is now forcibly sending Iranians back into danger," National Iranian American Council President Jamal Abdi said in a press release. "Words of solidarity against violence and repression ring especially hollow when you're rounding those same people up and forcing them on planes to deliver them back into the hands of their oppressors."
On January 8 and 9, massive unrest broke out inside Iran, followed by a bloody government crackdown. The Human Rights Activists News Agency, a nonprofit in Virginia that has been tracking the violence, has confirmed over 5,000 deaths and 26,000 arrests. While the uprising seems to have died down, the country is reportedly under unofficial martial law and a telecommunications blackout. Last year, before the unrest began, the Iranian government executed at least 975 people.
The Iranian government is guilty of "the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before," Trump told Politico last week, adding that Iran "is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership."
But as early as Sunday, the Trump administration plans to fly 40 Iranians back to the country, immigration lawyer Bekah Wolf and other sources confirmed to MS NOW and CNN. Two of Wolf's clients are a gay couple who fled their country in 2021 after being indicted for homosexuality. The couple showed up at the U.S. border and claimed asylum in early 2025, just before Trump's inauguration; they fear execution if they are returned to Iran.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Iranian foreign ministry did not respond to Reason's requests for comment.*
The deportation flight this weekend would be the third deportation flight sent by the Trump administration to Iran. The administration sent two deportation flights, each carrying 55 people, to Iran last September and December. The flights included Iranians who are gay and some who converted to Christianity, both of which are illegal in Iran. Two of the Christian deportees were later summoned for questioning by Iranian intelligence, the BBC reports.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin told The New York Times in November that the administration was deporting "terrorists, human smugglers and suspected foreign agents." Meanwhile, Iranian diplomat Abolfazl Mehrabadi told the Times that the deportees were coming back to Iran voluntarily. "Iran's government does not like to see any Iranian in detention or lost in a third country, and they face no problems returning," he said.
The deportees themselves clearly feel differently. In July 2025, pastor Ara Torosian filmed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) dragging away a Christian Iranian while his wife had a panic attack. The man was later deported to a third country, but his wife was granted U.S. asylum, according to the BBC. Another Christian Iranian who was set to be deported to Iran via Turkey managed to escape the Turkish airport during his layover and is now in hiding.
Mehrdad Dalir, one of the deportees on the September flight, told the Times that he "did everything in my power to stop them, but the ICE officials didn't care. They told me, 'You are either getting on the plane on your own, or we will tie you and send you back.'"
*UPDATE: After this article was published, the Department of Homeland Security responded to Reason's request for comment, saying it could neither confirm nor deny the planned deportation flight due to "operational security."
