Trump administration shared Iranian asylum seekers' confidential data with Tehran, lawsuit alleges

A lawsuit filed in a US federal court on Tuesday has accused the Trump administration of illegally sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government, alleging that the disclosures violated US immigration laws and placed asylum applicants at serious risk.The complaint, filed in the US District Court in Washington, DC, alleges that US immigration authorities shared sensitive details from asylum applications with Iranian officials while coordinating deportations. It seeks an immediate halt to the alleged information sharing and asks the court to appoint an independent monitor to prevent future disclosures.The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied the allegations, saying it only facilitates consular access for detained individuals in accordance with US laws and regulations."These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE," DHS said in a statement.According to the lawsuit, the US State Department began arranging monthly meetings with Iranian officials through the Pakistani embassy in March 2025. During those meetings, US officials allegedly shared detailed information about detained Iranian nationals whom the administration intended to deport.

Lawyers representing the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and the Public Citizen Litigation Group alleged that the information included details from asylum applications filed by Iranians who claimed persecution for converting to Christianity, their sexual orientation, or participation in the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests against the Iranian government.The complaint further alleges that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) required detained Iranian asylum seekers to meet Iranian government officials who were already familiar with confidential details of their asylum claims.

According to the filing, the alleged information sharing continued even after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the war in February 2026.The lawsuit argues that federal regulations introduced in the late 1990s explicitly prohibit the US government from disclosing information that could reveal an individual's asylum application to the government they are seeking protection from."Congress made these confidentiality protections mandatory precisely because lives depend on them, and no agency and no administration, of either party, may set them aside," said Ali Rahnama, interim executive director of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.The complaint describes the alleged cooperation between Washington and Tehran as a coordinated effort to identify Iranian nationals in ICE custody and pressure them to return to Iran, despite decades of diplomatic hostility between the two countries and their recent military conflict.DHS, however, maintained that its role is limited to obtaining travel documents required for deportations.Homeland Security said ICE works to secure travel documents for detainees and facilitates "consular access to detained individuals, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy."The lawsuit also alleges that the administration prioritised deportations over the safety of asylum seekers."Despite the U.S.'s ongoing war with Iran, the administration seems more committed to mass deportation than protecting human lives," said Michael Kirkpatrick, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group.The case names the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin among the defendants.The legal challenge comes amid the Trump administration's sweeping immigration crackdown, which, according to DHS, resulted in more than 600,000 deportations and prompted around 1.9 million undocumented immigrants to leave the United States voluntarily in 2025.The lawsuit also points to an agreement reached between Washington and Tehran under which Iran acknowledged in September 2025 that up to 400 Iranian nationals could be returned from the United States. Three deportation flights carrying Iranian nationals reportedly departed between September 2025 and January 2026, before the outbreak of the Iran war. According to previous reporting by The New York Times, some of those deported were asylum seekers.