Iran confirmed on Tuesday that 120 of its nationals are being deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown and are scheduled to fly home this week. The move highlights a rare instance of cooperation between the two long-time adversaries on consular affairs.
Hossein Noushabadi, a foreign ministry consular affairs official, told the Tasnim news agency, “120 people should be deported and flown home over the next couple of days.” He added that the “US immigration service has decided to deport around 400 Iranians currently in the United States, most of them after entering illegally.”
A Rare Deal Between Longtime Foes
The New York Times reported that roughly 100 Iranians who had sought refuge in the United States were being sent back to their home country as part of an agreement between Washington and Tehran. The newspaper characterized the deal as the fruit of several months of negotiations, a striking diplomatic achievement given the tense relationship between the two nations.
When contacted for comment, the U.S. State Department offered no immediate statement to AFP.
The report indicated that an aircraft chartered by U.S. authorities departed the southern state of Louisiana on Monday evening and was expected to land in Tehran later on Tuesday following a necessary stopover in the Gulf state of Qatar.
Deportation to Countries with ‘Harsh Human Rights Conditions’
The deportations have been criticized as “the most stark push yet by the Trump administration to deport migrants even to places with harsh human rights conditions,” raising significant ethical questions about U.S. immigration policy.
This action follows earlier deportations this year in which the United States sent a number of Iranians, many of whom were Christians, to the Central American countries of Costa Rica and Panama. These incidents underscore the administration’s intensified focus on rapid deportation, often overriding human rights concerns linked to the migrants’ home countries.
