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As It Happens6:30U.S. shares asylum seekers' information with the Iranian regime, lawsuit claims

Even as the U.S. waged war with Iran and encouraged its citizens to take to the streets, the Trump administration was working with the regime to fast-track the deportations of dissidents, according to a new lawsuit.

Since March 2025, the U.S. government has been sharing the personal details of asylum seekers' cases with the Iranian regime, according to the suit filed earlier this month by the left-leaning Public Citizen Litigation Group and the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund (ALDF).

It alleges the U.S. government has welcomed regime officials into U.S. immigration detention centres to intimidate Iranians into returning to a country where they could face imprisonment, torture or death.

"We have a tradition of trying to be a beacon of hope for those fleeing political persecution and religious persecution, and we betrayed those confidences," Connecticut immigration attorney Cyrus Mehri, ALDF's co-founder, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal. "It just breaks my heart."

Detainees describe meetings with regime officials

The U.S. government has denied the allegations, which have not been proven in court.

But the ALDF says it has gathered multiple corroborating accounts that paint a stark picture of two seemingly enemy states working in collaboration against those fleeing persecution.

The non-profit has filed 11 sworn statements from Iranian asylum seekers in Customs and Enforcement (ICE) custody.

They include Christian converts, anti-regime protesters and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals who recounted being harassed, beaten, arrested and tortured by the Iranian regime.

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One woman said in her sworn statement that she was waiting in an Arizona detention facility for her asylum claim to be processed, when she and several other Iranian detainees were taken to a room to meet with a man described by ICE agents as an Iranian consular official.

"When I saw him, I felt cold," the woman, identified only as P.M., said in her hand-written declaration. "He looked like the regime guys."

The man had a list of the Iranian detainees' names, she wrote, and knew intricate details about their asylum claims, including information they had only disclosed to U.S. immigration officials.

S.O., another asylum seeker at the at the same Arizona facility, wrote in a sworn statement that the presence of an Iranian official spread fear among the Iranian asylum seekers.

"Many of us fled Iran to escape repression, political persecution or religious harassment," S.O. wrote. "His presence inside a U.S. detention facility was terrifying."

The asylum seekers all said the Iranian officials they met with urged them to sign documents agreeing to return to Iran.

Several said they were threatened with deportation to Africa if they declined to sign.

An inside source

Mehri says those first-hand accounts are backed up by details from a senior Iranian official who reached out to him in March 2026 to warn about a new immigration policy between the U.S. and Iran.

"Under this stark policy, the U.S. was seeking the help of the Islamic regime to get rid of people from Iran fleeing Iran that are lawfully knocking on the doors of America," Mehri said.

The lawsuit does not name the official who spoke with Mehri, but says he works with the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, D.C., which provides de facto consular and diplomatic services between the Iran and the U.S.

The source claimed the two governments held monthly meetings to share information about hundreds of asylum cases. These meetings, the lawsuit says, were followed by several mass deportation flights to Iran, as reported by New York Times.

"I specifically asked him, 'Did the United States government institute protocols or get assurances for the safety of Woman Life Freedom protesters, pro-democracy protesters?' " Mehri said. "The answer was no."

Nor were there any procedures in place to protect Christian or 2SLGBTQ+ Iranians, he said.

The meetings stopped before Feb. 28, when war broke out between Iran and the U.S., the lawsuit says.

But even as the conflict raged on, the lawsuit alleges ICE has "continued to mail or hand deliver document packages to the Iranian Interests Section."

"Don't forget, we're at war with Iran. Why are we turning over asylum seekers to Iran on a silver platter?" Mehri said. "It seems like the U.S. government and Iranian government can't seem to agree on anything, except for this."

The lawsuit names U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a defendant. The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

Suit wants halt on sharing info with Iran

The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., names ICE, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as defendants.

DHS, which oversees ICE, has denied any wrongdoing.

“These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE," a DHS spokesperson told CBC in an email.

“ICE is committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to communicate with their consular representatives. Consistent with established protocols, ICE 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."

The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit calls on the U.S. government to immediately halt information sharing with Iran, to disclose to any current asylum seekers if their privacy has been compromised and to cease the mass deportation of Iranians.

"This has to end immediately," Mehri said. "America is better than this."