Washington (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the United States is deporting approximately 100 Iranians to Iran, citing two senior Iranian officials involved in negotiations and a U.S. official familiar with the plans.
Moreover, Iran also confirmed that 120 nationals being deported from the United States under President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown will return home this week.
How many Iranians are scheduled to return this week?
“120 people should be deported and flown home over the next couple of days,”
Foreign ministry consular affairs official Hossein Noushabadi told the Tasnim news agency.
“The US immigration service has decided to deport around 400 Iranians currently in the United States, most of them after entering illegally.”
A U.S.-chartered flight departed from Louisiana on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Iran via Qatar sometime on Tuesday, according to the report. The newspaper reported that the deportation, a rare case of collaboration between the two countries, occurred after months of negotiations.
The report noted that the identities of the Iranians and their motives for trying to immigrate to the U.S. were not immediately known. It mentioned that some had volunteered to leave after months in detention centres, while others had not.
Why are more Iranians crossing the US southern border?
Over recent years, more Iranian migrants have been arriving at the southern US border and crossing illegally, many of whom cite fear of persecution at home due to their political and religious beliefs.
For decades, the US has welcomed Iranians fleeing their country, which has one of the world’s worst human rights records. Iran persecutes women’s rights defenders, political dissidents, journalists, lawyers, religious minorities, and members of the LGBTQ community, among others.
Earlier this year, the US deported a group of Iranians, including many converts to Christianity, who are at risk of persecution in their home country. In 2024, the United States deported slightly over two dozen Iranians, marking the highest number in years, across several commercial flights.
What challenges has Trump faced in boosting deportations?
Donald Trump plans to deport a record number of undocumented residents, claiming it is necessary because of what he describes as increased illegal border crossings under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
Nonetheless, his administration has struggled to increase deportation rates, even after creating new channels to send migrants to countries other than their own.
