ICE Handed Over Specific Iranians at the Islamic Republic's Request
Newly released FOIA files reveal a back channel between ICE's office in Israel, the Qatari government, and the Islamic Republic.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flew specific people to Iran at the Islamic Republic's request, newly released documents show.
"The Iran Embassy just issued passports or travel documents for the three listed below. They requested that they be added to the flight leaving out on the 29th," an ICE official wrote in a September 2025 email. ICE seems to have complied with the request, as other ICE officials scrambled to collect these Iranians from different detention centers in the U.S.
The ICE flights to Iran have already been controversial. At the same time that the Trump administration was planning a war on Iran, ostensibly to free Iranians from a tyrannical government, it was deporting people back to that same government. The targets included Iranians who are openly gay and converted to Christianity, both of which are illegal in Iran.
A collection of documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit by the nonprofit National Iranian American Council, first reported by The Intercept, reveals new behind-the-scenes details about the flights. In addition to ICE's cooperation with the Iranian authorities, the emails show that the deportations were a direct order from the White House—and that ICE deported one Iranian by mistake.
In the midst of the Twelve-Day War between Israel and Iran, on June 19, 2025, ICE Acting Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles ordered the deportation of all "removable" Iranians. Another official, whose name was redacted, called it a "WH [White House] priority." That official complained that it would be "difficult" to implement because the region's airspace was closed due to the fighting and Iran was "currently uncooperative."
Little surprise there: President Donald Trump was openly mulling joining the war on Israel's side, which he would eventually do three days after Charles' email.
A few months after the war, the Iranian government suddenly became a lot more cooperative about deportations. ICE officials began talking about a plan to fly Iranians back through neighboring Qatar in August 2025, and an email from an ICE official whose name is redacted claims that the plan "started as an Iranian initiative."
Ironically, the emails suggest that a major point of contact with the Qatari government was Joshua Coster, the ICE attache at the U.S. embassy in Israel, a country that was at war with Iran and considers Qatar an enemy. Lekhwiya, the Qatari special forces unit, accompanied the Iranian detainees on the flight.
The initial August 2025 flight plan fell through due to Qatari ministries' problems coordinating with each other and Iranian counterparts, according to the ICE emails. Then another one was scheduled for September 29, 2025. ICE gathered Iranians from different detention centers at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana, working with Iranian diplomats to finalize the list of deportees, including the three names added at Tehran's request.
It's not clear where the Iranian diplomats came from. The ICE emails refer to the "Iran Embassy," which doesn't exist in America because the two countries do not have official relations. However, consular issues for Iranians in America are usually handled by Iranian diplomats posted to the Pakistani embassy in Washington.
Iranians in ICE detention report that they were questioned by an Iranian diplomat from the Pakistani embassy, who "possessed detailed information about their asylum cases," according to a lawsuit by the nonprofit Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which is seeking to stop ICE from sharing this information. ICE denied sharing asylum data in its comments to The Intercept.
The emails do show that a few days before the deportation flight, ICE brought an Iranian diplomat to "interview" detainees at the Alexandria Staging Facility. That diplomat continued to press for more names to be added to the deportation list. ICE officials turned down that request—not for moral or legal reasons but because of logistics.
"Therefore, the Iranian Director requested information regarding TD/PP [travel documents/passports] for specific cases and requested certain cases to be canceled from or added to the charter flight. I confirmed with the Iranian Director that we could not add cases to the charter and those with valid original TD/PP (already listed/approved), with no impediments will proceed on the charter flight," an ICE official with a redacted name wrote. "Eventually, the Iranian Director requested for ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations] to conduct another charter mission to get these cases return [sic] to Iran asap."
However, it seems that another Iranian was added to the flight at the last minute. "An Iranian alien not included on the final manifest we sent to the Qatari MOI [ministry of interior] was boarded on the flight," Coster, the attache in Israel, wrote on September 30, calling it "unfortunate." That person was deported to Iran anyway.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment from Reason, and avoided the question about the mistaken deportation in its response to The Intercept.
There were two more deportation flights after the September 2025 flight: one in December 2025 and another in January 2026. The latter flight occurred only weeks after a major uprising in Iran, which the government put down by force, killing thousands of people.
In total, ICE deported more than 100 people to Iran. Several of the deportees were summoned and questioned by Iranian secret police after arrival, the BBC and the New York Times report.
Charles wrote in June 2025 that there were 244 Iranians with a final order of removal in ICE custody, and 2,578 with a final order outside of custody, suggesting that ICE had much more ambitious plans. The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund claims in its lawsuit that ICE had scheduled a fourth flight for March 2026.
But the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28, 2026, making any more deportations practically impossible. "The United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America," Trump said in his announcement of the war. "Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand."
Today, the same government is still in charge of Iran. It is not clear what happened to the Iranians whom the Trump administration handed over to it.