An official from Iran’s Foreign Ministry reveals that the Trump administration is preparing to deport approximately 400 Iranian nationals.
Published On 30 Sep 2025
An Iranian government representative has disclosed that the United States intends to repatriate hundreds of Iranian citizens in the near future. The initial group of around 120 deportees is expected to arrive in Iran within days, amid President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement efforts.
Hossein Noushabadi, who oversees parliamentary and consular affairs at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informed the Tasnim news agency on Tuesday that US immigration officials are planning to deport close to 400 Iranians.
According to Noushabadi, the first batch of Iranian nationals will land “within the next day or two” after a layover in Qatar. Officials from Qatar have yet to issue a statement regarding this development.
He further explained that the majority of those targeted for deportation entered the United States without proper documentation, mainly crossing through Mexico, while others are facing different immigration-related complications.
This wave of deportations has not been officially confirmed by the Trump administration and occurs amid ongoing strained relations between the US and Iran, especially following the US and its ally Israel’s joint airstrikes on Iranian targets during a 12-day conflict in June.
The deportation initiative also aligns with a broader crackdown on migrants and asylum seekers across the United States, with President Trump vowing to execute the most extensive deportation campaign in the nation’s history.
Noushabadi emphasized that the US government made the decision to proceed with these deportations independently, without prior consultation with Iranian authorities.
Contrastingly, The New York Times, citing unnamed Iranian sources, reported that these deportations are the result of prolonged negotiations between the two governments.
The report also noted that some Iranians chose to leave voluntarily after enduring months in detention centers, while others were deported involuntarily.
A US-chartered aircraft departed from Louisiana on Monday and was scheduled to reach Qatar late Tuesday, where the deportees would transfer to a flight bound for Tehran, according to a US official.
Requests for comment from the White House and the US Department of State were not immediately answered by Reuters.
Since his inauguration in January, President Trump has aimed to increase deportations to unprecedented levels.
Nevertheless, the administration has encountered challenges in scaling up deportation numbers, even as it has introduced new policies to redirect migrants to countries other than their own.
For instance, in February, the US deported 119 individuals from various countries, including Iran, to Panama under a bilateral agreement between the two nations.
