For Immediate Release

December 17, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund (IALDF) conducted in-person investigations at multiple ICE detention facilities across the United States, meeting with individuals of Iranian descent who are lawfully seeking asylum. These individuals have articulated genuine fear of persecution by the Islamic Regime due to their conversion to Christianity, support for women’s rights, membership in the LGBTQ community, or otherwise standing up to the oppression by the Islamic Regime.  

The IALDF investigation, in sworn testimony, uncovered evidence that:

• ICE is working hand in glove with the Islamic Regime providing them unlawful direct access to asylum seekers from Iran as well as their confidential information in blatant violation of U.S. law;
• That asylum seekers were forcibly and violently coerced to assign away their rights to asylum; and
• That these asylum seekers face near certain risk of imprisonment, torture, and persecution, if returned to Iran.  

These individuals legally requested asylum under the protections of U.S. law. Yet instead of being offered safety, they have been subjected to prolonged detention, psychological abuse, subhuman detainment conditions, and coerced waivers of their legal rights.

Disturbingly, our investigation revealed that ICE granted the Director of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Interests Section direct access to detained asylum seekers against their will. This regime official had specific knowledge of their cases—an unconscionable breach of confidentiality and due process, and a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).

Even more gravely, IALDF has received credible reports of ICE officials employing coercive tactics to obtain signatures and fingerprints on “voluntary” deportation documents against detainees' will. In multiple instances, detainees were surrounded by officers, physically threatened or restrained, and told or coerced to sign or fingerprint their rights away. Such conduct raises serious concerns under U.S. law and international prohibitions against refoulement—the forcible return of individuals to countries where they face torture or persecution.

In light of these abuses and the news of mass deportation flights organized by the U.S. to Islamic Regime in Iran, IALDF, together with our legal partners at Grossman Young & Hammond, formally submitted an urgent complaint to the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UN CAT). The complaint invokes Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture and requests that the Committee urge the United States and involved transit countries—including Qatar, Egypt, and Kuwait—to immediately suspend deportations to Iran. All of these countries are signatories to the Convention and are legally bound by its prohibition on transferring refugees to torture or their demise.

IALDF is gravely concerned by reports of future charter flights scheduled to deport high-risk individuals to Iran. We must not remain silent while Iranian dissidents are returned to the hands of their persecutors under the watch of the U.S. government.

IALDF has already filed detailed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with ICE, CBP, and the U.S. Department of State aiming to uncover the legal, procedural, and diplomatic basis for these removals—actions which appear to have bypassed safeguards enacted by Congress to protect those fleeing persecution.

Ali Rahnama, Executive Director of IALDF stated:

“The United States, with the help of Qatar, Egypt and Kuwait, is turning over asylum seekers to the Islamic Regime on silver platter, putting these freedom seeking individuals at near certain risk of torture and imprisonment. We are calling on the United Nations Committee Against Torture to intervene immediately.”    

The Iranian American diaspora and the broader human rights community must stand united in defense of the persecuted. IALDF calls on lawmakers, advocates, and the media to demand transparency, accountability, and above all, protection for those who placed their trust in American justice.

‍

Media Contact: news@ialdf.org | www.ialdf.org

‍