By DUBAI, Sept 30 (AfrikTimes) – The first group of about 400 Iranians set to be deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown were due to land in Qatar on Tuesday before continuing on to Tehran, a U.S. and an Iranian official said.
The group included both convicted criminals and people who had entered the United States illegally, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The transfer marks an unusual moment of coordination between two nations at loggerheads over Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran says is purely civilian but Washington asserts is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.
An Iranian official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, downplayed speculation of a political deal with Washington, which joined Israeli air strikes on Iran and its nuclear facilities in June. “This is a consular matter, not a political one,” the official said.
CALL TO RESPECT IRANIANS’ RIGHTS
The Iranian foreign ministry’s director general for parliament affairs, Hossein Noushabadi, said the U.S. is “planning to deport around 400 Iranians, most of whom entered the country illegally, in line with the new anti-immigrant approach of the U.S. government.”
“In the first step, they decided to deport 120 Iranians who entered the U.S. illegally, most of whom through Mexico,” Noushabadi told the semi-official Tasnim news agency. He called on Washington to respect the rights of Iranian migrants in the United States.
A federal agent escorts a detained man to a stairwell after his immigration hearing in New York on 17 July 2025.
The first group of 120 deportees would reach Iran in the next one or two days, he said.
A U.S.-chartered flight took off from Louisiana on Monday and was scheduled to arrive in Qatar late on Tuesday so the deportees could be transferred to a Tehran-bound flight, the U.S. official said.
The White House and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TRUMP’S DEPORTATION PLANS
Some of the Iranians had volunteered to leave after being in detention centers for months, and some had not, according to The New York Times, which first reported the deportations.
“Some (returnees) had residence permits but, due to reasons stated by the U.S. immigration office, they were included in the list. Of course, their own consent was obtained for their return,” said Noushabadi.
Trump has pledged to deport a record number of people living in the U.S. without legal status, citing what he calls high illegal border crossings under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
However, his administration has struggled to increase deportation levels, even as it has created new avenues to send migrants to countries other than their own.
The U.S. in February deported 119 people from different countries, including Iran, to Panama as part of an agreement between the two countries.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in coordination with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, assists with the deportation of migrants at Biggs Army Airfield, Fort Bliss, Texas, Feb. 7, 2025.
