hearing oct.

Mohammadjamal Azizi, an Iranian refugee living in Tujunga, panicked when his wife called him last month about a message from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement instructing her to contact Iranian government officials in Washington about her case.

The United States and Iran have been at war for months, and the pair claimed asylum to enter the country as Christian converts, so Azizi’s wife was surprised and terrified. She thought that after close to two years in a detention facility, it meant the U.S. government planned to deport her.

“If they send me back to Iran, what will happen to me?” Azizi recalls his wife saying through tears.

Documents in a lawsuit brought against U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio unsealed last week contend that the Trump administration has been in secret conversations with Iran to plan deportations, even as the two nations have been at war.

The lawsuit, filed in July by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund in U.S. District Court in Washington, accused the U.S. immigration officials of sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with their home country and described a coordinated effort between the two governments to identify Iranians and pressure them to return.

At a hearing Oct. 15, court transcripts show, the Trump administration acknowledged its plan to deport Iranians back to the country, saying “the government is executing lawful orders of removal.”

In a statement to The Times, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security defended its talks with Iran, saying that ICE “actively coordinates” with countries to secure travel documents and is “committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to communicate with their consular representatives.”

In the Los Angeles area, which is home to the largest population of people of Iranian descent outside of Iran, the confirmation of deportation talks has sparked fear among refugees and immigrant advocates.

Yasmine Chubin, executive director of the Iranian advocacy group, said the organization’s attorneys knew of at least a dozen detainees approached about removal in recent weeks. All were asylum seekers and a majority were Christian converts who entered the U.S. through the Southern border, and were held in detention for 18 months or longer. One attempted suicide upon hearing he might be returned to Iran, Chubin said.

“We’re at war and it’s unsafe to send anyone back to Iran,” Chubin said. “We find it really alarming, both the level of coordination between ICE and Iran and the unrestricted access officials have to Iranian nationals.”

Pastor Kevin Kang of Tujunga United Methodist Church, who has helped to house Azizi and other formerly detained refugees from Iran and elsewhere, said asylum seekers are under immense pressure to include detailed information in their application, but are afraid the information they include could end up in the hands of the government they fled from.

“All of this is horrifying,” Kang said. “These are people who have fled to this country because they want to be able to worship in the way they want.”

Homeland Security said “As promised, the Trump Administration is employing all lawful options to execute the largest deportation operation in history.”

The department said its handling of asylum seekers is “in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and agency policy.”

Historically, the U.S. has rarely deported people to Iran, and has often welcomed Iranian dissidents, exiles and others who fled the country after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But the Trump administration has reversed decades of that approach in service of its broader hard-line immigration crackdown. This, despite the fact that Trump has encouraged Iranians to rise up against their government, telling them during January protests that “help is on its way,” and at the outset of the war: “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

Some 600 Iranians were put in immigration detention last year, according to records obtained by the National Iranian American Council, another advocacy group. Between September 2025 and January 2026, the U.S. arranged three flights to return more than 100 Iranian nationals to Iran, according to information ICE disclosed in a court filing in the ongoing case.

ICE attempted to remove at least eight Iranians over the weekend, but the flight set to leave from Arizona, routed through Pakistan, was abruptly canceled for unknown reasons. The group has still been told they could be put back on a flight in coming days, according to immigration attorneys involved.

Homeland Security declined to comment on the canceled deportation flight or confirm future removal operations.

During the Oct. 15 hearing, Michael Kirkpatrick, an attorney for the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, described a June incident in which Iran officials who operate out of Pakistan’s embassy in Washington interrogated an Iranian man in California.

The man, whose name is redacted in court documents, was picked up by ICE when he attended a scheduled appointment at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service office in San Jose, and taken to the California City Detention Facility.

A week later, a detention officer led him to a private room where two men were waiting to speak with him. He was not told who they were beforehand, according to court documents. The visitors told the detainee they knew “a great deal” about him, including that he had been affiliated with an Iranian opposition group and lived in Camp Ashraf, just across the border in Iraq, before resettling in the U.S. in 2015.

“We know everything about you, do not worry,” the detainee recalled one of the men saying, according to court filings.

The fact that Iranian officials showed up that soon after the man’s detainment and were familiar with his case was “really indicative” of information sharing between the two governments, Kirkpatrick said in an interview.

At the Oct. 15 hearing, Judge Ana C. Reyes expressed surprise at the government’s position, according to the transcript.

“What you’re telling me is that the United States of America is going to send individuals back to that region facing what you and I and everyone who would ever look at this would know would be at a minimum a serious threat of certain death” she asked.

“Yes, Your Honor. It is — the government is executing lawful orders of removal,” replied Justice Department attorney Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel.

Though Reyes did not ultimately issue a preliminary injunction, she did order the administration to notify her in writing five days before the government sends any detainees to Iran.

It has left those in custody unsure of what will happen next.

Azizi and his wife, Hannaneh Alikaram, left Iran and requested asylum in the U.S. in late 2024, for fear of the persecution they could face as Christian converts. Back home they had twice been arrested which they said was due to their faith, according to their testimony in court.

To enter the country, they flew to Brazil and took the perilous overland route through the Darien Gap. They entered the U.S. at the southern border and were taken into custody.

Azizi was freed from detention about a year ago, with his asylum application approved. Alikaram’s nearly identical application, however, was rejected, with the judge overseeing her case citing consistencies in her testimony. Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on their case.

When Azizi, who goes by his Christian name Liam, contacted Iranian officials on behalf of his wife last month as instructed, he was told only that she was not on a current list of Iranian nationals scheduled to be deported.

“That was a relief,” he said.

In the spring, the couple filed a habeas corpus petition challenging Alikaram’s detention, which is still pending, as well as a motion to expedite the request due to a heart condition she has. She remains in custody at Richwood Correctional Center in Louisiana.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” Azizi said. “We are still waiting.”