The U.S. and Iran are at war. But ICE is still working with Tehran on deportations

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Set us as preferred Mohammadjamal Azizi, an Iranian refugee living in Tujunga, panicked when his wife called him last month about a message from U.S.Immigration and Customs Enforcement instructing her to contact Iranian government officials in Washington about her case.The United States and Iran have been at war for months, and the pair claimed asylum to enter the country as Christian converts, so Azizi’s wife was surprised and terrified.

She thought that after close to two years in a detention facility, it meant the U.S.government planned to deport her.

“If they send me back to Iran, what will happen to me?” Azizi recalls his wife saying through tears.Documents in a lawsuit brought against U.S.Secretary of State Marco Rubio unsealed last week contend that the Trump administration has been in secret conversations with Iran to plan deportations, even as the two nations have been at war.The lawsuit, filed in July by the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund in U.S.

District Court in Washington, accused the U.S.immigration officials of sharing confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with their home country and described a coordinated effort between the two governments to identify Iranians and pressure them to return.At a hearing Oct.

15, court transcripts show, the Trump administration acknowledged its plan to deport Iranians back to the country, saying “the government is executing lawful orders of removal.”In a statement to The Times, the U.S.Department of Homeland Security defended its talks with Iran, saying that ICE “actively coordinates” with countries to secure travel documents and is “committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to communicate with their consular representatives.”In the Los Angeles area, which is home to the largest population of people of Iranian ...