U.S. shared confidential immigration details with Iranian government, lawsuit alleges

ImmigrationU.S. shared confidential immigration details with Iranian government, lawsuit alleges The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund said the alleged sharing of information violates asylum seekers’ confidentiality and endangers them and their families.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00People walk the streets of Tehran, Iran, on June 18.Fatemeh Bahrami / Anadolu via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleJuly 7, 2026, 2:29 PM EDTBy Gary Grumbach, Dan De Luce and Nicole AcevedoThe Trump administration is providing the Iranian government with confidential information about Iranians seeking asylum in the United States, a civil rights group alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday morning.Subscribe to read this story ad-freeGet unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund accused the federal government of reaching an agreement with Iranian officials last year to periodically “share the immigration files and information of Iranians” in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.Since March last year, U.S. government officials have “periodically mailed or hand delivered” immigration records that include sensitive information about Iranian detainees such as final orders of removal, applications for relief and asylum applications, the lawsuit alleged.Michael Kirkpatrick, a lawyer with Public Citizen’s litigation group, was representing the nonprofit in the case.In the lawsuit, Kirkpatrick said that many of the affected asylum seekers are “pro-democracy protestors, members of religious minorities such as Evangelical Christians, or members of the LGBTQ community who seek refuge in the United States because of the grave dangers they face in Iran.”Disclosing their confidential information to the Iranian government “violates the asylum seekers’ confidentiality rights, endangers their family members and acquaintances who may still be residing in Iran, and puts those who are subject to removal to Iran,”...