Asylum confidentiality rules are a core part of U.S. immigration law because applicants often say they are fleeing persecution by their home governments. A new federal lawsuit now argues the Trump administration broke those rules by sharing sensitive details about Iranian asylum seekers with officials in Tehran.
Lawsuit names ICE, DHS and State Department in July 7 filing
The lawsuit was filed on July 7 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund and Public Citizen Litigation Group, according to court filings and reporting by the Associated Press and Reuters. It names the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the State Department and senior administration officials. The complaint says the government adopted the information-sharing policy in March 2025 as part of an effort to deport Iranian nationals.
According to the complaint, U.S. officials allegedly gave Iran identifying and case-related details tied to detained immigrants, including people seeking asylum after converting to Christianity, because of their sexual orientation, or because of links to the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests. Bloomberg Law reported the filing says an Iranian official first requested a list of citizens subject to deportation and the administration provided about 150 names. The complaint also describes monthly meetings with Iranian officials, with Pakistan’s embassy serving as an intermediary, according to the AP.
The Trump administration disputed the allegations. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News that accusations ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government were false. Reuters also reported the administration denied it illegally disclosed confidential information.
The case is national in scope, and the lawsuit does not publicly identify a state-by-state breakdown of affected asylum seekers. Court filings and wire-service reports reviewed this week do not provide a confirmed count for how many people in California, Texas, New York, Virginia or other states may have had information shared. The plaintiffs say the practice endangered “countless” Iranians, but no comprehensive public list of affected residents has been released.
What is confirmed is that the complaint centers on Iranian nationals in U.S. immigration custody and on information allegedly used to facilitate deportations. The filing says some deportation flights to Iran took place in late 2025 and January 2026, according to AP reporting on the lawsuit. The complaint further states that document sharing continued after direct U.S. military action against Iran began on February 28, 2026, even if the in-person meetings later stopped.
For local communities, that leaves major unanswered questions. It is not yet publicly known how many asylum seekers in any one metro area were affected, whether notices have been sent to individuals whose records were allegedly disclosed, or whether family members in Iran were contacted by authorities there. The plaintiffs are asking the court to order notice to affected asylum seekers and to halt any further disclosures.
The legal issue turns on long-standing confidentiality protections in U.S. asylum law. Those rules generally limit the government from revealing information that could expose a person’s asylum claim to the very country they say persecuted them. The lawsuit says violating those protections could expose people to persecution, torture or death if returned to Iran, particularly political dissidents, religious converts and LGBTQ applicants, according to the complaint summarized by Reuters, ABC News and the AP.
The broader context is the Trump administration’s intensified deportation agenda. AP reported the lawsuit arrives amid an aggressive immigration crackdown, while critics have argued that faster removals can increase the risk of due process violations in asylum cases. In this case, the plaintiffs argue the government’s push to secure deportations to Iran overrode basic legal safeguards built into the asylum system.
For residents following the case, the next steps are likely to come in federal court. The plaintiffs are seeking court orders to stop any further information sharing and to notify people whose data may already have been disclosed. As of July 10, 2026, the public record establishes the lawsuit and the administration’s denial, but not a final judicial finding on whether the disclosures occurred.