Leaked ICE Emails Expose Quiet Coordination With Iran on Deportation Flights During Heightened Tensions
Newly released internal emails from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reveal that the Trump administration maintained a working channel with Iranian officials to facilitate the deportation of more than 100 Iranian nationals on three charter flights between September 2025 and January 2026. The documents, obtained by the National Iranian American Council through a Freedom of Information Act request and first detailed by The Intercept, show U.S. immigration officers accommodating Iranian requests on passenger lists even as public confrontations between Washington and Tehran escalated into military conflict.
The emails span May through November 2025 and provide the clearest picture yet of how logistics for these removals were arranged. They capture high-level pressure from the White House, practical problems created by the absence of formal diplomatic relations, and direct or indirect exchanges with Iranian authorities often routed through Qatari intermediaries. The revelations stand in contrast to decades of U.S. practice that generally allowed Iranians with final removal orders to remain in the country because of well-documented risks of persecution upon return.
Priority Orders Amid Conflict
On June 19, 2025—three days before U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and during what became known as the Twelve-Day War—then-Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons directed staff to treat the removal of Iranians as a priority. Marcos Charles, head of removal operations, followed up with an instruction to “begin working on a plan to remove all removable FO [final order] Iranians in custody” and added, “We need a plan forward ASAP.” Officials noted that Iran was uncooperative on travel documents, that Iranian airspace was closed, and that neighboring land borders posed difficulties. One senior official urged colleagues to involve the State Department “to identify a solution for this WH [White House] priority.”
At the time, ICE held roughly 522 Iranian nationals in detention, including hundreds with final orders. Arrests of Iranians had surged in the preceding weeks. Iranian officials later indicated that an understanding with the Trump administration could allow the return of as many as 400 people, most of whom had entered the United States from Mexico without authorization or faced other immigration violations.
Building the Flights
Planning for the first mass removal flight advanced through the summer. By late August an earlier charter attempt had collapsed because of Iranian delays. Officials then worked through Qatar to arrange a new itinerary. Emails show Iranian Embassy staff requesting changes to the passenger manifest. One ICE officer wrote in late August, “Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases.” Another message recorded that Iran had asked to “amend the previous manifest and expedite the removal process” after a meeting with the “Director at the Iranian Embassy.”
On September 26, three days before departure, an official noted that “the Iran Embassy just issued passports or travel documents for the three listed below. They requested they be added to the flight leaving out on the 29th.” Some late requests were denied, yet the pattern of accommodation is clear across the correspondence.
The first flight left the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana on September 29, 2025, operated by a private contractor. It refueled in Puerto Rico, stopped in Cairo, and continued to Doha. There the 54 Iranian deportees transferred to a Qatar Airways charter that landed at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran on October 1. The number was far lower than the 120 originally expected; Qatari officials complained about the last-minute reduction and the operational complications it caused. Among those aboard were individuals Iran had specifically requested. One Iranian national who was not on the final manifest sent to Qatari authorities was nevertheless boarded. An ICE officer later wrote that this was “unfortunate,” while a colleague replied, “I have no idea how the case/person got through to the plane.”
Two further flights followed—one in December 2025 and another on January 25, 2026—both routed through Kuwait. A fourth flight planned for late March 2026 was canceled after renewed U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran. Joshua Coster, the Enforcement and Removal Operations attaché based at the U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, served as a key liaison with Qatari counterparts during the planning of the first flight. His location in Israel while coordinating logistics involving Iran drew particular attention from critics once the emails became public.
Controversies and Legal Challenges
The emails have intensified an existing lawsuit filed by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and Public Citizen Litigation Group. That complaint alleges that U.S. officials shared sensitive details from asylum applications and immigration files with Iranian representatives during monthly meetings that began in March 2025, using the Iranian Interests Section at the Pakistani Embassy as an intermediary. Plaintiffs claim the information included reasons for seeking protection—such as conversion to Christianity, political activity linked to the 2022 protests, or sexual orientation—and that detainees were compelled to meet Iranian officials who already possessed knowledge of their cases. The Department of Homeland Security has rejected the core allegation, stating that claims ICE shared asylum application records with Iran are false. It maintains that any interactions followed standard protocols for consular access.
Human rights advocates argue the removals placed vulnerable people at risk. Reports from the period indicate that some deportees included political activists, ethnic and religious minorities, and at least one person who attempted suicide before being forced onto a plane. Immigration attorney Hassan Ahmad described the approach as turning people over to a “despotic regime” regardless of cost. Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said the documents show the top priority “was to kick out as many people as possible by whatever means necessary,” adding that the coordination occurred while the United States and Israel were preparing further military steps against Iran.
Broader Context and Implications
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution the United States has generally treated Iranian nationals with credible fear claims differently from citizens of countries with which Washington maintains normal relations. Formal diplomatic ties remain severed, so travel documents and acceptance of returnees have historically been difficult to obtain. The Trump administration’s willingness to negotiate practical arrangements for removals marked a clear departure. Supporters of the policy frame it as ordinary enforcement against individuals who had exhausted their legal options and who, in many cases, had entered the country unlawfully. Critics contend that the combination of White House urgency, Iranian influence over lists, and the simultaneous military confrontation created an appearance of collaboration that undercut public messaging about human rights and regime behavior in Tehran.
The released emails stop in November 2025, leaving later operational details incomplete. They nonetheless document a functional channel that operated through intermediaries when direct diplomacy was impossible. Whether this channel represented routine logistics necessary for any removal or a more consequential policy shift continues to be debated in legal filings, congressional inquiries, and public commentary. What the documents unambiguously establish is that, for a period spanning open conflict and fragile ceasefires, U.S. immigration authorities and Iranian officials found common ground on the practical question of who would board the planes bound for Tehran.
About The Author
