SAEDNEWS: The U.S.-Chartered Flight for Deportation to Iran Marked the Second of Its Kind; the First Occurred in September After Months of Tehran-Washington Negotiations.
According to the Saed News political service, The New York Times reported that, citing two informed Iranian officials, the Trump administration deported a group of Iranian citizens to Iran on a chartered flight on Sunday. This marks the second such operation conducted by the United States.
Entekhab reported, citing The New York Times, that the two Iranian officials—speaking on condition of anonymity due to lack of authorization for public comment—said the plane, carrying approximately 50 Iranian citizens along with deportees from Arab countries and Russia, departed from an airport in Mesa, Arizona, with stops in Egypt and Kuwait.
This U.S.-chartered deportation flight to Iran was the second of its kind; the first occurred in September, following months of negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
As part of the Trump administration’s broader push for mass deportations, it reached an agreement with Tehran to coordinate the return of Iranian citizens at risk of deportation—currently estimated at around 2,000—sending them to Tehran via charter flights. Previously, the U.S. deported Iranians individually on commercial flights.
The identities and personal circumstances of those deported on Sunday—such as whether they agreed to leave voluntarily or were forced onto the plane—were not immediately clear. One Iranian official familiar with the passenger list said the individuals had entered the U.S. through the southern border, spent months in detention, and had their asylum applications rejected.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the flight. One American official, speaking anonymously, confirmed that the flight took place and described it as a “routine” deportation, which included citizens of other countries, not just Iran.
An Iranian official who closely coordinated with U.S. authorities said Arab and Russian citizens disembarked in Cairo, and the Iranians then flew to Kuwait to board a Kuwait Airways charter flight for the final leg to Tehran.
On Sunday, Mojtaba Shasti Karimi, Director General of Consular Affairs at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told local media that Iran expects to receive approximately 55 deportees from the U.S. in the coming days.
Shasti Karimi said that those on this flight “chose to return to Iran due to the racist and anti-immigrant policies of the U.S. government” and added that Tehran had received reports of “inhumane treatment” of Iranians in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.
However, following reports of the flight’s possible weekend departure, Iranian-American lawmaker Yasmin Ansari, a Democratic representative from Arizona, warned that the flight could include “vulnerable individuals.”
The Trump administration has stated its intention to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, targeting undocumented immigrants and those who crossed the U.S. border illegally. It also plans to sharply limit asylum approvals, restricting them primarily to white migrants from South Africa or English-speaking Europeans.
Iranians are among citizens of 19 countries affected by President Trump’s travel ban. Legal immigration pathways for them—and many others—have been further restricted following new measures announced by Trump last month, after an Afghan immigrant shot two National Guard members in Washington, killing one.
The first charter deportation flight of Iranians occurred in September and arrived in Tehran via Qatar in early October. At least eight of the 45 passengers on that flight said they resisted deportation and begged not to be sent to Iran, fearing for their lives. Two deportees later described being physically abused by immigration officers in the U.S. and Qatar and being forced onto the plane.
Both the United States and Qatar have denied allegations of violence or coercion against deportees on flights to Iran.
