Lawsuit says U.S. shared Iranian asylum files with Tehran

A civil rights group sued the Trump administration Tuesday, alleging U.S. officials gave Iran confidential immigration records for hundreds of Iranians seeking asylum or other protection in the United States — a claim the Department of Homeland Security denied as “FALSE.”

The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, represented by lawyers from Public Citizen Litigation Group, filed the federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C. The complaint accuses the government of reaching an agreement with Iranian officials last year to periodically “share the immigration files and information of Iranians” held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

According to the lawsuit, U.S. officials have since March 2025 “periodically mailed or hand delivered” immigration files to the Iranian government. The records allegedly included final orders of removal, applications for deportation relief and asylum applications. NPR reported that the complaint says some of the information was provided during monthly meetings between ICE and the Iranian Interests Section, which handles consular duties in the United States. Those meetings stopped after the U.S. attacked Iran in February, according to the filing cited by NPR, but the lawsuit alleges the sharing of documents continued.

Michael Kirkpatrick, an attorney with Public Citizen, said federal rules bar the government from sharing information contained in asylum applications with the government an applicant says they are fleeing.

“The law is very clear that information within an asylum application or other applications for similar forms of protection cannot be shared, particularly with the government that the individual is fleeing,” Kirkpatrick told NPR.

In the lawsuit, Kirkpatrick wrote that many affected asylum seekers are “pro-democracy protestors, members of religious minorities such as Evangelical Christians, or members of the LGBTQ community who seek refuge in the United States because of the grave dangers they face in Iran.” Disclosing their information, he wrote, “violates the asylum seekers’ confidentiality rights, endangers their family members and acquaintances who may still be residing in Iran, and puts those who are subject to removal to Iran at risk of persecution, torture, and death following their arrival in Iran.”

Kirkpatrick told NPR that the information could expose returnees to detention, interrogation, prison or torture, and could also endanger relatives and acquaintances still in Iran. The lawsuit says the disclosures included identifying information, family relationships, political opinions and reasons the detainees feared the Iranian government.

DHS rejected the allegation. In a statement to NBC News, the department said the claim that ICE shared asylum application records with Iran was “FALSE.” ICE also told NPR the allegations were false.

“ICE meets and works to get travel documents for detainees with every country” and “provides illegal aliens the opportunity to contact their consular post and facilitates consular access to detained individuals, in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy,” DHS said in its statement to NBC News.

The lawsuit seeks to have the alleged agreement with Iran declared unlawful. The plaintiffs also want an order allowing affected Iranian detainees to reopen their immigration cases to determine whether they qualify for asylum or other relief. Kirkpatrick said Public Citizen plans to request a preliminary injunction to temporarily halt the alleged information sharing and to require personal notification for people whose information was shared.

Public Citizen is compiling sworn written declarations from Iranians in immigration detention centers as part of that effort, a spokesperson told NBC News. According to NPR, the lawsuit is also based on confidential information from an Iranian government official confirming the alleged data-sharing policy, though NPR said it had not independently reviewed that testimony.

NPR reported that detainees in immigration custody said they were called into meetings with senior officials from the Iranian Interests Section and that the officials already knew information contained in their asylum claims, according to the complaint. The Iranian Mission to the United Nations did not respond to NPR’s request for comment.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran and typically does not cooperate with its government on immigration cases, NBC News reported. Kirkpatrick told NPR the Trump administration has sent three deportation flights and more than 100 people to Iran, while others have been deported to third countries including Panama and the Central African Republic.