The Trump administration is reportedly in the process of deporting a plane full of about 100 people back to their home country of Iran, despite fears they could face persecution there.
A U.S.-chartered deportation flight left Louisiana on Monday night bound for Iran, part of a deal between Washington and Tehran, The New York Times reports, citing unnamed officials in both nations.
Those onboard had largely been denied asylum or had not yet appeared before a judge to plead their case for it, according to the paper.
An Iranian official said on Tuesday that a series of deportation flights removing a total of about 400 people is expected in the coming months.
“In the first phase, they decided to deport 120 Iranians who entered the U.S. illegally, mostly through Mexico,” Hossein Noushabadi, of Iran’s foreign ministry, told the Tasnim News Agency.
Advocates warned that the deportees had little meaningful choice to challenge their removal and could face persecution once back in Iran, which has long had a poor human rights record.
“The fact that a deportation flight is being chartered to Iran underscores the grave civil rights violations being inflicted on Iranian nationals here in the United States,” Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said in a statement. “Our understanding is all these individuals agreed to be deported to Iran when facing a terrible choice: endure deplorable treatment in some of the worst prison conditions in the United States with little hope for release, be deported to a third country where they don’t speak the language, or return to Iran.”
At least 16 people have died in immigration detention across the U.S. since the beginning of this year, putting 2025 on pace to be one of the most dangerous in decades for in-custody deaths.
The Independent has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.
The reported agreement marks a rare moment of bilateral cooperation between the two nations, whose relations have been especially strained under the Trump administration, which in June launched a major strike on Iranian nuclear sites.
The U.S. has faced continued criticism for deporting individuals to countries with poor human rights records, or “third party” nations to which they have no ties.
Such flights have included summarily sending hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a gulag-like prison in El Salvador, deportations to the tiny African nation of Eswatini, and flights removing migrants to unstable nations like Libya and South Sudan, where they are likely to face violence or persecution.
