Trump administration held talks with Iran on deporting Iranians during war, court documents show

The Trump administration held talks with Iran on deporting Iranians while the war there was still under way, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press. The documents were unsealed on Thursday, and they show that as recently as mid-October the administration said it had plans to deport Iranians through an unnamed third country.

The material comes from a lawsuit brought by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, a group that represents Iranians held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency responsible for immigration enforcement. The transcript, dated October 15, records remarks by Judge Ana Reyes.

At that hearing, Justice Department attorney Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel told the court that no specific date had been set to carry out any removals of Iranians. The judge ordered the government to give the court 24 hours' notice of any finalized plans to deport Iranians to Iran or to any other country. She also ordered five days' written notice before any such deportation is carried out.

According to the court documents, the administration maintained contacts with Iranian officials during the war about submitting travel documents for the removals and identifying possible ways to carry them out.

The lawsuit also alleges that the administration's immigration agencies shared confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian government. Those allegations are contested in the case.

The Legal Defense Fund said that in the past week at least 12 Iranian detainees were contacted by the Iranian Interest Section, which handles consular affairs from an office inside the Pakistani embassy in Washington. According to the group, those detainees were told about an upcoming deportation flight to Iran through Pakistan.

Yasmine Chubin, the group's executive director, said one detainee attempted suicide after learning he might be returned to Iran.