WASHINGTON — Fifty-five Iranian nationals who were deported from the United States will be flown back to Tehran in the coming days, according to Iran’s foreign ministry, marking the second time this year that a planeload of those deported under a rare deal between the longtime adversaries has been returned. The flight is part of a scheme to deport some 400 Iranians, and is part of broader Iran deportations that immigrant advocates say are eroding the distinction between immigration enforcement and refugee protection, Dec. 8, 2025.
On Wednesday, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said: “Around 55 of our nationals will return to Iran” as the second group in recent months, describing the deportations as driven by “anti-migrant policies that are against international law.” He said the moves showed rare coordination between two governments that communicate through interest sections and third-country intermediaries rather than through embassies.
Iran deportations on the rise, alarming rights groups
The fast-paced deportation drive runs the risk of returning dissidents, religious converts and LGBTQ+ individuals who have faced persecution by the Iranian government directly back into danger, advocates warn. Last week, the National Iranian American Council said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” that the Trump administration was moving forward with a second charter flight containing detainees who have demonstrated a “credible fear of retaliation and abuses” by Iranian authorities.
Previous deportees told reporters they had been shackled for transfers, detained for months in facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and pressured to drop asylum claims before boarding the first plane in September. Iranian media have reported that the first charter flight departed from Louisiana, bound for Qatar, where the group of 120 was boarded onto a plane to Tehran under heavy security escort.
At least some among those already deported appear to be in high-risk categories. Another man claimed to a CNN reporter that he was afraid to return to Iran because of his sexual orientation, for which he could be executed there, and said that when he was put on the flight, his case seeking asylum in the United States was still pending.
American officials have provided little information about the second flight; they have defended the entire Iran deportations program. The Department of Homeland Security has previously said that the Iranians deported under the deal either had final orders of removal or were granted voluntary departure, and that “all individuals were provided all appropriate rights to due process,” according to an analysis by the Immigrant Policy Tracking project.
The September charter, which was described in a Reuters report, carried 120 individuals and was the first time in years that Washington and Tehran were publicly on the same page about a mass-deportation flight. In the weeks after that, Middle East Eye would report at least 55 Iranians had already been put on a charter plane and “hundreds more” were facing expulsion, citing figures from rights groups monitoring Iran deportations.
In a separate report in November, the Times of Israel said the initial deportation flight included Christian converts, ethnic minorities and political dissidents who had warned they would be endangered if sent back to the Islamic Republic — a sentiment echoed by exiled Iranian activists.
The Iran deportations come amid a wider ratcheting up of American immigration policy. Days before the most recent flight, Trump issued an order to suspend processing of immigration and asylum for anyone from 19 countries — including Iran — already under travel restrictions, a move that critics said amounted to “scapegoating entire nationalities”, according to analysis by the Guardian.
Iranian officials have vowed that a second group of 55 deported nationals will be processed and returned to their hometowns after health and security checks, but they continue to accuse Washington of politicising migration. Rights advocates in the United States are urging that Congress demand transparency about the Iran deportations and that it ensure no one who has a credible fear claim is placed on the next charter, as more flights are expected to come in the months ahead, according to a statement by the National Iranian American Council and other groups.
