Quiet channel between ICE and Iran shaped deportation flights, newly released emails show

Quiet channel between ICE and Iran shaped deportation flights, newly published emails show The president of the National Iranian American Council, stated the emails undermine Mr.

Key points

• The Department of Homeland Security did not offer comment in response to an emailed request sent Tuesday (August 18, 2026) afternoon.
• Iranian authorities acknowledged in September 2025 that as numerous as 400 Iranians could be returned under an agreement with the Trump administration.
• Charles was unfazed, telling staff in a subsequent email to create a plan to deport 58 Iranians with final removal orders in ICE custody at the time.
• The emails show that Iranian authorities had some influence over which Iranian immigrants in the U.S.
• "Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases, " one unnamed ICE official wrote in late August, a month before the first deportation flight in September.

U.S. Immigration authorities worked with Iran to deport Iranians in 2025, newly issued emails show, revealing a working relationship between the US and Iranian governments despite tensions mounting between the countries. Photo Credit: AP.

Hundreds of emails exchanged between U.S. Immigration authorities. It were obtained by the National Iranian American Council and produced public on Tuesday (August 18, 2026), offer the most transparent play-by-play yet of how the two countries worked together to arrange for more than 100 Iranians to be flown back to Iran on three separate immigration flights in September and December 2025 and January 2026.

Notably, the emails show that Iranian authorities had some influence over which Iranian immigrants in the U.S. Were sent back to their home country, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities apparently heeded some last-minute changes to deportation lists at the request of Iran.

"Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases, " one unnamed ICE official wrote in late August, a month before the first deportation flight in September. Just over a week afterwards, someone with the same job title moved to produce another, unspecified change to the deportation list after they noted they met with the "Director at the Iranian Embassy." "Iran has requested that I amend the previous manifest and expedite the removal process, " the official wrote.

In a September 26 email, just three days before the deportation flight left U.S. Soil, an ICE official remarked in an email that the Iranian Embassy was still making requests for three further Iranians on the flight. It's not clear who concluded up on the flight. It concluded up being much smaller than initially planned. Although one official wrote that those requests were denied, iranian authorities were still making requests the day the flight departed.

Coordination of the flights remained a high priority even as ICE authorities acknowledged internally that Iranians were fleeing Iran against the backdrop of the deadly 12-day war with the U.S. And Israel in June 2025, emails show. The flights departed just months after the US and Israel agreed to a ceasefire with Iran.

Meanwhile, the new emails highlight a clear departure from a decades-long practice by the U.S. Of welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others since the 1979 Islamic Revolution forced plenty of Iranians to flee.

Notably, the deportation of Iranians to a country whose administration has a pattern of violent persecution against women, religious minorities and political dissidents has drawn significant criticism from human rights activists.

In practice, the Department of Homeland Security did not offer comment in response to an emailed request sent Tuesday (August 18, 2026) afternoon. Some deportees were handpicked by Iranian authorities, emails show.

Iranian authorities acknowledged in September 2025 that as numerous as 400 Iranians could be returned under an agreement with the Trump administration. While some faced other immigration matters, they remarked most of the Iranians had crossed into the U.S. From Mexico illegally.

It is not clear from the emails how frequently U.S. Immigration authorities had direct contact with the Iranian administration. Sometimes messages were conveyed through Qatari authorities. This person assisted charter the deportation flights through Doha, but other times authorities reference regular meetings with the "Iranian delegation, " the "Director at the Iranian Embassy", and other unnamed Iranian office-holders.

It is not clear whether the individuals Iran put on the list had volunteered to repatriate or if they were forced. While others stated they were deported against their will, previous reporting from The New York Times made public that asylum-seekers were among those deported to Iran.

At least one person was deported who wasn't supposed to be, emails indicated.

"An Iranian not included on the final manifest we sent to the Qatari MOI was boarded on the flight, " an unnamed U.S. Official wrote.

In response, another unnamed US official wrote, "I have no idea how the case/person got through on the plane." U.S. Prioritised deportation efforts during war.

Emails suggest that pressure to carry out the Iranian deportations came from the highest levels of the Trump administration, even when U.S. And Israel were exchanging strikes with Iran in a 12-day conflict between June 13 and June 24, 2025.

Just days after Mr. Trump's June 16 warning on social media that "Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" the former acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, called the repatriation of Iranian immigrants a "priority" in an email sent to the agency's head of removal operations, Marcos Charles and a number of unnamed staff.

Shortly after Mr. Lyons' email, Mr. Charles forwarded the message to a group of authorities whose names are redacted. An unnamed ICE official responded, warning that "removal will prove difficult" against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict as Iran wasn't issuing the travel documents for Iranians eligible for deportation. On top of that, the Iranian airspace was closed to all flights during the bombings, and Iranians were fleeing the country.

Mr. Charles was unfazed, telling staff in a subsequent email to create a plan to deport 58 Iranians with final removal orders in ICE custody at the time.

"We need a plan forward ASAP, " Mr. Charles wrote. Another official, whose name was redacted, pressed colleagues to "identify a solution for this White House priority." Jamal Abdi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, stated the emails undermine Mr. Trump's assertions that the U.S. Is at war with Iran to save ordinary Iranians from a repressive regime.

"It demonstrates that the top priority here was to kick out as many people as possible by whatever means necessary, " Mr. Abdi remarked. Iranian authorities had access to immigration detainees.

On a number of occasions, the emails show ICE office-holders arranging for Iranian authorities to meet for unspecified reasons with residents detained in the U.S., echoing testimony from Iranian asylum-seekers in an unrelated lawsuit filed by an unaffiliated Iranian interest group in July.

Eleven Iranians in immigration detention remarked they were forced to meet with Iranian administration authorities while in ICE detention. Those Iranian authorities knew intimate details regarding their asylum claims, according to the sworn declarations filed in a Washington, DC, court in July.

In practice, the lawsuit alleges that U.S. Immigration agencies have been illegally sharing confidential information regarding Iranian asylum-seekers with the Iranian administration.

Notably, the U.S. Administration is allowed to work with administration authorities of foreign countries to coordinate deportation logistics. Nevertheless, federal regulations passed in the late 1990s prohibit the administration from sharing information that could reveal that the person getting deported applied for asylum. DHS vehemently disputed the lawsuit's allegations.

"These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE, " DHS remarked in an official note in July.

For now, quiet channel between ICE and Iran shaped deportation flights, newly released emails remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.