Deportation flight of Iranians from US scuttled at last minute, attorney says

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A U.S. Deportation flight of Iranian nationals bound for Iran by way of Pakistan was abruptly canceled Sunday morning, according to an attorney who spoke to some of the detainees slated for repatriation.

What happened

At least eight Iranians were loaded onto a plane Sunday morning in Mesa, Arizona, for a deportation flight headed to the country of Georgia, then on to Pakistan, according to Ali Rahnama, an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund who filed emergency motions on behalf of some of the Iranian detainees. The flight was canceled without explanation, he remarked.

Court documents unsealed days ago in a civil lawsuit filed by the fund indicated the Trump administration as lately as mid-October noted it had aims to deport the Iranians to Iran, even as the war there drags on, via an unnamed third country. The lawsuit was filed in July and alleges that the U.S. Administration illegally shared confidential information concerning Iranians seeking asylum in the U.S. With Iranian authorities.

The bottom line

In short, deportation flight of Iranians from US scuttled at last minute, attorney says is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.