A federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. claims the Trump administration has been sharing identifying information about Iranians seeking asylum in the United States with Iran's government. The disclosed details include names, family relationships, political views, and reasons why people fear returning to Iran.

The suit was filed by attorneys with the Public Citizen Litigation Group on behalf of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, docketed as Iranian American Legal Defense Fund v. Rubio.

The complaint says the practice started in March 2025, when U.S. immigration officials began regularly mailing or handing over asylum files on detained Iranians to Iran's Interests Section—the diplomatic office that represents Iran in Washington since the U.S. and Iran have no formal diplomatic relations. These transfers occurred during monthly meetings between Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Interests Section.

The monthly meetings stopped after the United States conducted a military strike on Iran in February 2026. But the lawsuit alleges the file transfers continued anyway. According to plaintiffs, hundreds of detained Iranians pursuing asylum claims had their information shared, including names, family details, political opinions, and the specific reasons each person cited for fearing the Iranian government.

The legal team's evidence includes an account from a confidential source: an Iranian government official who confirmed the data-sharing arrangement to the plaintiffs' attorneys. Michael Kirkpatrick, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, is representing the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit cites federal regulations—specifically 8 CFR 208.6—that govern how asylum records must be kept confidential. The rule prohibits sharing asylum application information without the applicant's consent. It explicitly requires the State Department to maintain confidentiality even when records are sent to U.S. offices abroad. Plaintiffs argue that handing files directly to the Iranian government violates this rule, since the regulation assumes records stay within U.S. government channels, even overseas—not that they would go to the very government an asylum seeker is fleeing.

Public Citizen says it intends to seek a preliminary injunction to stop the information sharing while the case continues, and to require the government to notify individuals whose files were allegedly disclosed. As of July 7, 2026, no hearing date had been set.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to NPR's request for comment on the alleged sharing. Iran's Mission to the United Nations also did not respond.

The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund has previously litigated related cases. Its publications list a prior press release about Iranian asylum seekers facing deportation to the Central African Republic, and a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records on U.S. government actions affecting Iranian nationals. In June, attorneys noted that an Iranian woman was among people deported from the United States to the Central African Republic.

The core allegation pits a confidentiality requirement against operational practice at ICE and immigration courts, where asylum files routinely contain biographical and political information that a source country could use to identify dissidents or locate their relatives. If the confidential source's account holds up during discovery—the formal evidence-gathering phase of litigation—the case becomes less about whether disclosure happened and more about its scope: how many files, over what period, and whether any officials at the Department of Homeland Security or State Department approved using the Interests Section meetings as a channel for sharing.

The timing detail carries legal weight here. Plaintiffs allege that file transfers continued after the February 2026 U.S. strike on Iran ended the regular ICE-Interests Section meetings. If true, this would suggest the sharing arrangement operated independently from routine liaison contacts between the two governments—making it more entrenched.

The government has not yet filed a response, and the case remains in its early stages.