The United States is preparing to deport about 400 Iranians, most of whom entered the country illegally, as part of President Donald Trump’s wider crackdown on immigration, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday.
“In the first step, they decided to deport 120 Iranians who entered the U.S. illegally, most of whom through Mexico,” Hossein Noushabadi, director general for parliament affairs at Iran’s foreign ministry, told the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The New York Times, which first reported the move, said the deportations followed months of quiet talks between Washington and Tehran — an unusual instance of cooperation between the two countries.
According to Noushabadi, the first group of 120 deportees is expected to arrive in Iran within one or two days. The Times reported that a U.S.-chartered flight departed Louisiana on Monday and was due to land in Iran via Qatar on Tuesday.
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“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,” Noushabadi said. He also urged Washington to respect the rights of Iranian migrants.
The newspaper said some of the Iranians had volunteered to leave after months in detention centres, while others had not.
The White House and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people living in the U.S. without legal status, citing what he calls high illegal border crossings under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. But his administration has faced challenges in raising deportation levels, even as it seeks new arrangements to send migrants to third countries.
In February, the U.S. deported 119 people, including some Iranians, to Panama under a bilateral agreement.
