Pakistan Rejects ICE Flight Deporting Iranians to Iran

A deportation flight operated by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement returned to Mesa, Arizona, early Tuesday morning after Pakistan abruptly declined to accept at least nine Iranian immigrants for transfer. The flight was part of a Trump administration strategy to deport individuals to countries where the U.S. lacks formal diplomatic relations, such as Iran and Afghanistan, by utilizing Pakistan as a transit point.

The detainees, which include political dissidents and asylum seekers, were returned to an Arizona immigration detention facility following the midair turnaround. The operation has drawn legal challenges from the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, which filed a lawsuit alleging the administration illegally shared confidential asylum information with the Iranian government.

Legal representatives for the detainees argue that this data breach exposes vulnerable groups, including Christian converts and LGBTQ+ individuals, to persecution. While ICE officials testified in October that coordination with Iranian diplomats was limited to the processing of travel documents, the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund maintains that the sharing of asylum claims was illegal.