The Trump administration plans to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals back to Iran as early as Sunday, according to three sources with knowledge of the flight, the first known deportations to the country since President Donald Trump threatened its leaders over their treatment of protesters.
Members of the group being deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement fear for their lives if they are sent back to Iran, according to a relative, a lawyer representing some of the Iranians, a former ICE official and a U.S. lawmaker.
The deportation flight is scheduled to depart from Arizona on Sunday, these people said, just days after the country’s hardline regime crushed mass protests by killing at least 3,000 demonstrators.
Two Iranian men, who are gay, told their lawyer Bekah Wolf with the American Immigration Council that they were set to be deported on the Sunday flight. Homosexuality is illegal and punishable by death in Iran, which executed two gay men in 2022 and is considered one of the world’s most repressive countries for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
“They’re terrified,” Wolf told MS NOW. One of her clients “calls every 45 minutes begging me to save his life.”
“We need a court of some sort to fully hear their claims before they’re sent back to a country where being gay is punishable by death,” said Wolf.
She said her two clients have no criminal convictions and entered the U.S. in early 2025 on asylum claims. Both were in the middle of appeals though did not have stays of removal, Wolf said. Ultimately, Wolf said, “they did not have full hearings of their asylum claims in any meaningful way.”
“They’re terrified,” a lawyer for one of the Iranian nationals told MS NOW. One of her clients “calls every 45 minutes begging me to save his life.”
Both men fled Iran roughly four years ago, after they had been arrested by Iran’s morality police and were awaiting a likely death sentence.
It’s unclear how many people in the group had active asylum claims or were in the U.S. legally.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
The planned deportation flight also comes after Trump called Iran’s hardline leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “a sick man” who should “stop killing people,” in an interview with Politico on Saturday. Trump also said Iran was “the worst place to live anywhere in the world.”
When demonstrations sparked by a collapsing economy spread across Iran in early January, Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and promised “help is on its way.” He has not yet carried out air strikes but told reporters on Thursday they remain possible, noting that the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group is headed to the region. “A massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won’t have to use it,” Trump said. “We’ll see.” A relative of a third Iranian being deported said they feared what would happen to one of their family members when they arrived in the country. The Iranian national, who has kids who are U.S. citizens, was picked up by ICE in recent months after living in the U.S. for years. “I’m worried he could be detained or, worse, killed,” said the relative, who asked not to be named out of fear of what could happen to their family member. The Iranian national, who arrived as a minor, and lived in the U.S. for years, had a prior order of removal for non-violent offenses, the relative said, and was regularly checking in with ICE. But recently, ICE selected them for enforcement because Iran has now agreed to take deportations from the U.S. after decades of the U.S. welcoming Iranian dissidents, exiles and others. “It’s completely destroyed our family,” the relative said of the Iranian national’s detainment in ICE custody. “It was so sudden and traumatic.” The relative was stunned, saying, “the question I have is: how our president is concerned about protesters in Iran but is doing this to people and families here.” In December, the U.S. deported roughly 55 Iranian nationals on a charter flight, according to Iranian officials. Another rumgroup of 55 Iranians was deported on a charter flight from the U.S. in September.
David Rohde
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.
Laura Barrón-López covers the White House for MS NOW. Recommended
