Lawsuit alleges US shared Iranian asylum files with Iran
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- Public Citizen Litigation Group filed suit in Washington, D.C., alleging the Trump administration began sharing Iranian asylum seekers' application details with Iran in March 2025; the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund is the plaintiff.
- U.S. immigration officials allegedly "periodically mailed or hand delivered immigration files of Iranians" in custody to the Iranian government during monthly ICE meetings with the Iranian Interests Section.
- Document sharing allegedly continued even after those monthly ICE–Iranian Interests Section meetings stopped following a U.S. attack on Iran in February.
- The lawsuit alleges information on hundreds of Iranian detainees was shared, including identifying details, familial relationships, political opinions, and the specific reasons they feared the Iranian government.
- Michael Kirkpatrick, the Public Citizen attorney, warned that disclosed details — including participation in pro-democracy demonstrations, LGBTQ identity, or conversion to Christianity — could lead to detainees being detained, interrogated, imprisoned, or tortured in Iran, and could endanger family members who remain.
- The Trump administration has sent three deportation flights and over 100 people to Iran, with additional deportations routed through third countries including Panama and the Central African Republic, according to the suit.
- Public Citizen plans to request a preliminary injunction to freeze the information sharing and to personally notify individuals whose asylum data has been disclosed to Iran.
Why it matters: Hundreds of Iranian asylum seekers in U.S. custody allegedly had protected information — political views, LGBTQ identity, religious conversion — handed to the government they fled, per the lawsuit. Federal regulations explicitly bar disclosing asylum records. If true, the same data shared with Iran could be used to detain or torture deportees upon return, as the suit's attorney warned.
