Quiet channel between ICE and Iran shaped deportation flights, newly released emails show
Newly released emails reveal that U.S. immigration officials coordinated with the Iranian government to facilitate deportation flights for Iranian nationals between 2025 and 2026. The correspondence shows that Iranian officials influenced the deportation manifests despite ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Why it matters
The cooperation between two adversarial nations on immigration logistics highlights the complexity of international diplomatic relations.
U.S. immigration officials worked with Iran to deport Iranians in 2025, newly released emails show, revealing a working relationship between the US and Iranian governments despite tensions mounting between the countries.
Hundreds of emails exchanged between U.S. immigration officials, which were obtained by the National Iranian American Council and made public on Tuesday (August 18, 2026), offer the most transparent play-by-play yet of how the two countries worked together to arrange for more than 100 Iranians to be flown back to Iran on three separate immigration flights in September and December 2025 and January 2026.
The emails show that Iranian officials had some influence over which Iranian immigrants in the U.S. were sent back to their home country, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials apparently heeded some last-minute changes to deportation lists at the request of Iran.
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