Trump admin shared confidential information on Iranian asylum seekers as it worked to deport them, lawsuit alleges

By CNN Newsource

Published July 7, 2026 3:22 pm

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — A newly filed lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration shared confidential information with Tehran about Iranian asylum seekers as it worked to deport them from the United States, putting them at risk of “persecution, torture, and death following their arrival in Iran.”

According to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the US District Court of the District of Columbia, many Iranian asylum seekers in the US are pro-democracy protestors, members of religious minorities, or members of the LGBTQ community – people who would face grave risks if they were forced to return to Iran.

The lawsuit names Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement David Venturella, and their respective agencies as defendants.

It was filed by Public Citizen on behalf of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.

“These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email to CNN.

The State Department had no comment on the lawsuit.

The State Department’s latest human rights report, issued under the Trump administration, said there are “significant human rights issues” in Iran.

As part of its severe deportation agenda, the Trump administration has carried out at least three deportation flights to remove dozens of Iranians from the US, including one as recently as January when deadly crackdowns against anti-government protests were sweeping Iran. The lawsuit claims the US is working with the Iranian Government “on another mass deportation flight to Iran in the coming weeks.”

The lawsuit notes that “in carrying out removals, the United States government may coordinate logistics with government officials of the receiving country, but federal regulations prohibit sharing of information that would reveal or infer that the individual to be removed had applied for asylum in the United States,” because sharing such information “could subject the individual to persecution upon repatriation or endanger the applicant’s family members who may still be residing in the country of origin.”

It alleges that the administration has provided details “on hundreds of Iranian detainees seeking asylum” to the Iranian government as it sought to deport them under a rare agreement between Washington and Tehran, which do not have diplomatic relations. That agreement was reached in March 2025, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that the details were shared both during monthly meetings between ICE and Iranian Government officials and “periodically” by mail. It also alleges that ICE has coordinated in-person meetings with Iranian government officials and dozens of Iranians in ICE custody, and that many of these meetings were held without the consent of the detainees.

“According to Iranian detainees who met with an Iranian Interest Section official, the official had knowledge of their immigration cases, including the details of their asylum applications,” the lawsuit says.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the stop the sharing of the confidential information, declare the policy of doing so to be “unlawful,” to identify and notify asylum seekers whose information was shared with the Iranian government and stop any deportations until such work is done.

The DHS spokesperson said ICE is “committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to communicate with their consular representatives” and provides them “the opportunity to contact their consular post and facilitates consular access to detained individuals, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy.”

“ICE meets and works to get travel documents for detainees with every country,” the spokesperson said, noting they “will continue to use all lawful options to deport illegal aliens.”