Lawsuit Accuses the Trump Administration of Handing Iran the Asylum Files of Iranians It Wants to Deport

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington accuses the Trump administration of violating federal law by providing Iran's government with confidential information from the asylum applications of Iranians it planned to deport — details that, if true, could expose those individuals to imprisonment or death if they are sent back. The suit was brought by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and the Public Citizen Litigation Group against the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to the complaint, U.S. officials began sharing information about the applications with Tehran in March 2025 through monthly meetings that used the Pakistani embassy in Washington as an intermediary. The disclosed material allegedly included the fact that applicants had claimed persecution for converting away from Islam, for their sexual orientation, or for taking part in the 2022 "Women, Life, Freedom" protests that shook Iran — precisely the categories of people most at risk under the Islamic Republic.

Federal regulations dating to the late 1990s make the confidentiality of asylum claims mandatory, barring the government from revealing even that a person applied for protection, on the grounds that such information can be weaponized by the very regime an applicant fled. "Congress made these confidentiality protections mandatory precisely because lives depend on them," said Ali Rahnama, interim executive director of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.

The lawsuit describes a series of deportation flights — in September and December of 2025 and again in January 2026 — and says roughly 600 Iranian detainees have been in U.S. custody, with about 400 potentially affected by the alleged data-sharing arrangement. Although the in-person meetings reportedly stopped before U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began earlier this year, the plaintiffs allege that ICE has continued to hand-deliver or mail document packages to the Iranian Interest Section.

ICE flatly denied the accusations. "These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE," the agency said in a statement. The case sets up a high-stakes legal fight over the limits of the administration's deportation drive and over how much protection U.S. law still affords those who say returning home could cost them their lives. The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to halt any further sharing of the records and to block deportations of the affected Iranians while the case proceeds.