Trump administration deported 21,000 to places US calls too dangerous to visit

The overwhelming majority of those deported had no criminal convictions, and at least 600 were children

In late January, the Trump administration was https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/us/politics/trump-war-iran-israel.html?searchResultPosition=2">planning a war in Iran, weighing possible airstrikes and staging aircraft carriers and other military ships in the region.

Around that time, government officials deported 18 people to Iran, the last of them arriving just days before American and Israeli bombs began falling across the country.

These deportations were the latest in an aggressive campaign to deport Iranians from the United States, the first time in recent history the US government had done so in large numbers.

In the 13 months of https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump">Donald Trump’s presidency leading up to the war, the United States deported more than 200 people to Iran, even as the state department https://iranwire.com/en/news/147344-us-calls-attack-on-ilam-hospital-clear-crime-against-humanity/">decried human rights abuses by the Iranian government and warned US citizens not to travel there “for any reason”.