USA deports plane crowded with Iranians after agreement with Tehran, authorities say

The Trump administration is deporting a plane with about 100 Iranian back to Iran from the United States after an agreement between the two governments, according to two high Iranian employees involved in the negotiations and a US employee.

Iranian authorities said the plane, a US-chartered flight, took off from Louisiana on Monday night (29) and was scheduled to arrive in Iran via Qatar on Tuesday (30). The US employee confirmed that the flight plans were in the final stages. All employees spoke on anonymity, as they were not allowed to discuss details publicly.

Iranian identities on the plane and the reasons why they tried to immigrate to the US were not clear immediately.

Deportation is one of the Trump government’s most blunt actions to deport migrants, regardless of human rights conditions in destination countries. The growing campaign of deportations generated legal proceedings by immigrant advocates, who criticize flights.

For decades, the United States has shelter to Iranians who fled from their country, which has one of the most severe human rights records in the world. Iran pursues activists for women’s rights, political dissidents, journalists, lawyers, religious minorities and members of the LGBTQ+community, among others.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of Iranian migrants illegally coming to the southern US border, many claiming fear of persecution in their country for their political and religious beliefs.

Hossein Noushabadi, Director-General for Parliamentary Affairs at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday that US immigration authorities plan to deport 400 Iranians living in the United States back to Iran in the coming months.

“In the first phase, they decided to deport 120 Iranians who entered the US illegally, mainly by Mexico,” he told Tasnim news agency, affiliated with Iran’s powerful revolutionary guard.

Some of the deported people had residence in the US, he added, and all deported had legally left Iran.

The United States has long been hesitated or has difficulty deporting migrants to certain countries, such as Iran, due to lack of regular diplomatic relations and difficulty obtaining time travel in a timely manner.

This forced US authorities to keep migrants in detention for long periods or release them in the US. The United States deported more than two dozen Iranians in 2024, the largest number in years.

The two Iranian employees who spoke to the teams said the deported ones included men and women, some couples. Some had volunteering to leave after months in detention centers, others not. In almost every case, asylum requests have been denied or people had not yet attended an asylum audience.

Deportation is a rare moment of cooperation between US and Iran governments, and was the result of months of discussion between the two countries, the Iranian authorities said.

One of the employees stated that Iran’s Foreign Ministry was coordinating the return of the deported and that they received guarantees that they would be safe and failed problems. Still, many were disappointed and some even scared.

“Iran will certainly receive migrants who, for any reason, had previously emigrated to the United States,” said Noushabadi to Tasnim.

In addition to political oppression, Iran faces an economic and energy crisis, with falling currency, high inflation, unemployment and water and energy cuts.

The economic situation should worsen with the return of UN Security Council sanctions, which came into force on Saturday.