ICE Emails Show Iran's Embassy Asked to Add and Reorder Names on U.S. Deportation Flights to Tehran

Hundreds of internal U.S. immigration emails obtained by the National Iranian American Council and released Aug. 18 show ICE officials coordinating with Iranian officials on three flights that returned more than 100 Iranians in September and December 2025 and January 2026, The Associated Press reported on Aug. 20. "Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases," one ICE official wrote. The emails show former acting ICE director Todd Lyons calling the repatriations a "priority" days after Trump's June 2025 post telling people to evacuate Tehran.

Federal regulations bar the government from disclosing to a country that a person fleeing it has applied for asylum. A separate July lawsuit alleges ICE shared confidential asylum information with Iranian officials.

DHS said the administration "is utilizing all lawful options" and called the claim that asylum records were shared false. It also disputed that anyone was mistakenly deported, though one email asks how a person not on the final manifest "got through on the plane."