In a move that has sent ripples through diplomatic, human rights, and immigrant communities alike, the United States is poised to deport hundreds of Iranians back to Iran in the coming weeks—a policy shift that marks a rare, if uneasy, moment of cooperation between Washington and Tehran. The first group of 120 deportees is reportedly being readied for a flight within days, with the remainder expected to follow soon after, according to multiple Iranian officials and state media reports reviewed by AP, CNN, and The New York Times.
The mass deportation, which has not yet been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government, comes amid heightened tensions between the two countries. Just months ago, the United States carried out bombings against Iranian nuclear sites—a move that further strained already fraught relations. Now, with the United Nations having reimposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, the Islamic Republic’s economy faces even greater pressure, and the fate of these deportees has become a flashpoint in the broader geopolitical contest.
According to Hossein Noushabadi, director-general for parliamentary affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, most of those being deported had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico illegally. “Out of this number 120 have been selected for deportation and will return to Iran within the next one or two days,” Noushabadi told Iran’s state-affiliated Tasnim news agency. He added that the rest—making up a total of about 400 Iranians—would follow in subsequent flights. The first group is expected to travel via Qatar before arriving in Iran, though Qatari authorities have yet to confirm these arrangements.
For many, the announcement is a sharp departure from decades of U.S. policy. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, America has often served as a haven for Iranians fleeing religious, political, or sexual persecution. According to AP, the U.S. deported only 20 Iranians in the entire 2024 fiscal year. Yet, from September 2021 to November 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested 1,710 Iranians crossing the border illegally from Mexico, with numbers climbing steadily in recent years. From September 2024 through August 2025, Iranian asylum seekers saw a 41% success rate in their cases—well above the 25% average for all nationalities, per the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
The Trump administration’s new stance on immigration, however, has upended these longstanding practices. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson was unequivocal: “The Trump Administration is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to carry out the largest mass deportation operation of illegal aliens in history, using all the tools at our disposal,” she told AP and NBC News. The administration has struggled to increase deportation levels overall, despite striking deals with countries such as Panama, South Sudan, and Eswatini to accept deportees from the U.S. In February 2025, for instance, 119 people of various nationalities were deported to Panama, and other detainees have been dispatched to third countries, sometimes with little connection to their homelands.
Yet, the scale and nature of the current Iranian deportations stand out. Not only is this a rare episode of direct cooperation between two adversarial governments, but it also comes at a time when Iran’s human rights record is under intense international scrutiny. United Nations human rights experts voiced alarm this week over what they called a “dramatic escalation” in executions in Iran, with more than 1,000 people reportedly killed in the first nine months of 2025.
Human rights advocates have wasted no time expressing concern for the safety of those being sent back. The prospect of returning to a country where dissent is often met with harsh punishment—and where authorities have been accused of targeting dissidents abroad—has raised fears for the deportees’ well-being. As The Washington Post reported, these concerns were immediate and widespread following the announcement of the deal.
The details around the deportation decision remain murky. Noushabadi claimed that American authorities made the decision unilaterally, without consulting Iran. However, The New York Times cited anonymous Iranian officials who described the deportations as “the culmination of months of discussions between the two countries.” The Trump administration, for its part, has not publicly acknowledged any formal agreement, and the U.S. State Department has referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which has yet to comment.
For its part, Iran has maintained an “interest protection office” at the Pakistani embassy in Washington, D.C.—a diplomatic workaround given the absence of formal relations. Iranian officials have asked the U.S. to “be sensitive in respecting the rights of Iranian immigrants,” as Noushabadi told the Tasnim news agency. He also emphasized that, while many of those being deported entered the U.S. illegally, they had left Iran legally, and “there is no obstacle to their return to their homeland, but Iran supports its own citizens.”
The timing of the deportations is also notable. Just last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Masoud Pezeshkian attended the U.N. General Assembly in New York, making last-ditch efforts to stave off the reimposed sanctions. Yet, those hopes were dashed when Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly declared that diplomacy with the U.S. was a “sheer dead end.” In a rare admission, Araghchi acknowledged on state TV that “with Americans, both directly and indirectly, messages were exchanged, and eventually, we are relieved that we did whatever it was necessary.” He added, “It was clear and evident to us after the interpretation the Supreme Leader made that negotiations with Americans is an obvious dead-end.”
The identities and backgrounds of the deportees have not been made public, and it remains unclear how many face potential risk upon their return. Some, according to Iranian officials, hold valid U.S. residency permits, while others have been in the country for years—sometimes decades. The reasons for their attempted immigration to the United States are as varied as the individuals themselves, but the suddenness and scale of the deportations have left many in limbo.
For now, the flights are set to proceed, with the first group of 120 expected to touch down in Iran within days. As the world watches, the fate of these deportees—and the broader implications for U.S.-Iran relations and global immigration policy—remain uncertain. What is clear, though, is that the collision of domestic political priorities, international diplomacy, and the lives of hundreds of individuals has created a moment that neither nation, nor the families involved, will soon forget.
