Overview
- Hundreds of internal ICE emails made public in August 2026 show the agency arranged three charter flights that returned more than 100 Iranians in September 2025, December 2025 and January 2026.
- The messages record Iranian requests to add or change names on flight manifests and ICE officials sometimes accommodated those requests, with at least one person flown who was not on the final manifest.
- ICE emails describe arranging visits by Iran’s Interests Section representatives to meet detained Iranians in U.S. custody, and detainees have said those representatives knew detailed information about their asylum claims.
- The Department of Homeland Security denies that asylum application records were shared, but the disclosures have prompted lawsuits and public scrutiny over possible breaches of federal rules that bar revealing asylum status.
- The documents deepen concerns about returnees’ safety because media reporting found some deportees were later questioned by Iranian security services, and the records show the removals were pursued as an agency priority during the June 2025 U.S.-Iran/Israel escalation.