Emails Show ICE and Iran Worked Together on Deportations

Newly uncovered emails show that ICE, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, quietly worked together with the Iranian government to organize the deportation of Iranians back to Iran, according to a report from CBS News.

The correspondence indicates that ICE coordinated directly with officials from Iran's government, often referred to as a regime, to set up specific deportation flights. Deportation is the formal legal process by which a country sends someone back to their country of origin.

Notably, the emails reveal that this cooperation was reportedly occurring around the same period that President Trump was said to be developing plans concerning a potential war with Iran, adding a layer of complexity to the diplomatic relationship between the two nations.

According to the report, more than 100 Iranians were involved in these deportation efforts, which spanned into the 2025 and 2026 timeframe. The emails reportedly show that ICE handed over specific individuals at the Islamic Republic's request, suggesting a level of direct engagement not previously known to the public.

This kind of quiet cooperation is considered striking given the historically tense and often hostile relationship between the United States and Iran, two countries that have had no formal diplomatic relations for decades.

The revelations raise questions about how such logistics were arranged behind closed doors, particularly given the sensitive political climate surrounding US-Iran relations at the time. Logistics refers to the detailed planning and organization needed to carry out a complex task, such as arranging international flights.

It remains unclear from available reporting what specific criteria were used to select which Iranians were targeted for deportation, or what broader diplomatic understanding, if any, existed between the two governments to facilitate this arrangement.

The report is based on a review of internal emails, which appear to offer a rare glimpse into behind-the-scenes coordination between agencies of two governments that publicly maintain an adversarial stance toward one another.