Washington, DC – The National Iranian American Council is deeply concerned that the Trump administration is imminently planning to send Iranians detained by ICE on a deportation flight to Iran as soon as December 7, including individuals with credible fear of retaliation and abuses by Iranian authorities. We have received information that at least one detainee has been physically assaulted by guards while in detention and that detainees have been told they will be forced on this deportation flight against their will – with one detainee being told they would be drugged if necessary. NIAC calls on the Trump administration to halt this flight, provide all detained Iranian nationals full due process, investigate any abuses that have been alleged and to ensure that Iranians are not sent back into the hands of a state that is likely to persecute them.
Jamal Abdi, President of the National Iranian American Council, said: “Iranian nationals in the U.S. are entitled to due process. Yet, they are being harshly punished by a system that likes to tout its commitment to justice and humanity, and may be delivered back into the hands of an authoritarian state that the State Department just warned is among the world’s worst human rights abusers. This degradation of American values hurts both immigrant communities and the fabric of our democracy. Justice must prevail.”
NIAC is also calling for an investigation and full transparency regarding allegations that at least one detainee who feared retaliation if sent to Iran has been physically assaulted by guards and that detainees have been threatened that they will be drugged and forced on the deportation flight if they do not get on the flight voluntarily.
“Iranians like the ones on this imminent deportation flight come here to escape government repression. It is disturbing that, instead of honoring their asylum claims and offering them safety, our own government may be violating their human rights and compounding the harm done to them with abuses in detention,” said Abdi.
NIAC has brought a formal lawsuit against ICE in response to its unwillingness to respond to a FOIA request shedding transparency on its previous deportation flight of Iranian nationals. NIAC also reports regularly on human rights abuses by the Iranian government through its Human Rights Tracker publication, and tracks known public cases of detained Iranian nationals through its ICE Tracker.
The National Iranian American Council has additional details for reporters interested in looking into this case. Please contact us for more information.
This would be the second such deportation flight that the Trump Administration has sent to Iran, with the first reportedly including individuals who feared serious repression if returned to Iran. Until recently, Iran did not accept deportations from the United States, a consequence of there being no formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iranian governments. This was a factor that contributed to Iran being listed in the current travel ban, Presidential Proclamation 10949, which has been in place since June 2025.
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