American immigration officers worked with Iranian officials to decide who went on deportation flights to Iran, according to hundreds of ICE emails released this week by an Iranian American advocacy group. Iran asked for changes to the lists, and the officers made them. ICE put more than 100 Iranians on three flights: September 2025, December 2025, January 2026.
“Per request from the Iran Embassy I added a few cases,” one ICE official wrote in late August 2025, a month before the first flight left. A week later another official met the “Director at the Iranian Embassy” and wrote, “Iran has requested that I amend the previous manifest and expedite the removal process.” Three days out, Iran was still asking for three more names. ICE granted some and denied others. One Iranian never on the final list boarded anyway. “I have no idea how the case/person got through on the plane,” an American official wrote.
The push came from the top. Days after Trump posted “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!” during last June’s 12-day war, ICE’s then-acting director called sending Iranians home a “priority.” Staff wrote back that it wouldn’t work: Iran wasn’t issuing travel documents, had shut its airspace, and its people were running for the border. Marcos Charles, who runs ICE removals, told them to build a plan for 58 Iranians anyway. “We need a plan forward ASAP,” he wrote. Another official, name blacked out, told colleagues to “identify a solution for this White House priority.”
