{"id":2904,"date":"2026-07-08T06:04:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2026-07-08T06:04:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T06:04:28","slug":"u-s-illegally-shared-confidential-info-on-asylum-seekers-with-iran-lawsuit-alleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2904","title":{"rendered":"U.S. illegally shared confidential info on asylum seekers with Iran, lawsuit alleges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that the Trump administration’s immigration agencies have been sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government, violating national immigration regulations and endangering countless Iranians, court filings argue.<\/p>\n

Read more U.S. launches new strikes against Iran, revokes oil sales permit after 3 ships attacked in Strait of Hormuz<\/a><\/p>\n

The lawsuit depicts a coordinated campaign between the U.S. and Iranian governments to identify Iranians in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and pressure them to return to Iran \u2014 a marked departure from decades of diplomatic hostility between the two governments and\u00a0an ongoing war. The Department of Homeland Security denied that it is sharing asylum application records with the Iranian government.<\/p>\n

Roughly 600 Iranians were put in immigration detention last year, according to public records obtained by the National Iranian American Council. In June, an Iranian woman was among the\u00a0two dozen migrants the U.S. deported\u00a0to the Central African Republic \u2014 in a marked departure from a decades-long practice by the U.S. of welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others since the 1979 Islamic Revolution forced a large number of Iranians to flee.<\/p>\n

The U.S. government is allowed to work with government officials of foreign countries to coordinate deportation logistics. However, federal regulations passed in the late 1990s prohibit the government from sharing information that could reveal that the individual getting deported applied for asylum.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress made these confidentiality protections mandatory precisely because lives depend on them, and no agency and no administration, of either party, may set them aside,\u201d said Ali Rahnama, the interim executive director of Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.<\/p>\n

Starting in March 2025, the U.S. State Department arranged monthly meetings with Iranian officials, using the Pakistani embassy as an intermediary, in which U.S. officials shared detailed, sensitive information about detained Iranian immigrants who the U.S. government hoped to deport, lawyers for the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and the Public Citizen Litigation Group wrote in a complaint.<\/p>\n

The information included details about asylum applications filed by people who say they were persecuted for converting to Christianity, for their sexuality or for participating in the\u00a0Women, Life, Freedom\u00a0protests against the\u00a0Iranian government in 2022, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

ICE forced Iranian asylum applicants who had been detained in numerous facilities, mostly southern states, to meet with an Iranian government official who had extensive and specific knowledge about their applications, according to the complaint. The information was shared even after the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran started the Iran war in February 2026.<\/p>\n

Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday that ICE works to get travel documents for detainees in their custody and that ICE facilitates \u201cconsular access to detained individuals, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The Norwegian giant is coming to Miami: what you need to know about Erling Haaland<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThese allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE,\u201d DHS said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is seeking to halt sharing information about asylum seekers with the Iranian government and appoint an independent monitor to prevent future disclosures.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the U.S.\u2019s ongoing war with Iran, the administration seems more committed to mass deportation than protecting human lives,\u201d Michael Kirkpatrick, attorney at Public Citizen Litigation Group said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The complaint names the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and the Department of State as some of the defendants.<\/p>\n

The allegations come amid President Donald Trump\u2019s ambitious and aggressive immigration crackdown that involved over 600,000 deportations and causing roughly 1.9 million immigrants to voluntarily leave in 2025 alone, according to an announcement made by DHS.<\/p>\n

Iranian officials acknowledged in September 2025\u00a0that as many as 400 Iranians\u00a0could be returned under\u00a0an agreement with the Trump’s administration. That month, the first of three deportation flights brought dozens of Iranians back to Iran. The second deportation flight was in December 2025, and the final recorded deportation flight departed at the end of January 2026, roughly a month before the war on Iran started, and just weeks after the Iranian government killed thousands of citizens as part of a brutal crackdown on protests. The New York Times\u00a0reported at the time\u00a0that some of those deported in the flights in September, December and January were asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAfter drawing in a 1-1 match against Egypt, the Iranian national soccer team left a powerful thank you note to the city of Seattle.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

Associated Press reporter Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Case dropped against Opa-locka Parks director after child left alone in car<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration has been sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\nU.S. illegally shared confidential info on asylum seekers with Iran, lawsuit alleges - Jacksonville Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jacksonvillemovingnews.com\/?p=2904\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. illegally shared confidential info on asylum seekers with Iran, lawsuit alleges - 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