The first promise the United States makes to someone seeking asylum is that we will not tell the people they are running from. A lawsuit filed this week says the government broke that promise. According to the complaint, U.S. immigration agencies shared confidential details about Iranian asylum seekers, their identities, their family members, their political views, and the exact reasons they feared Iran, with the Iranian government itself.
If true, this is as dangerous as it sounds. The people described are dissidents and others who fled a government that jails and tortures its critics. Handing their files to that government, and in some cases making detainees sit across from an Iranian official who already knew their case, marks them for prison or worse the moment they are sent back. It reverses a promise this country has kept to Iranians since 1979.
The administration denies it and says it was only facilitating routine consular access. That is exactly what oversight is for. I am asking you to demand a full investigation into whether asylum applicants' protected information was disclosed to any foreign government, to halt any such sharing immediately, and to guarantee that no one who sought safety here is deported into the hands of the government they escaped while these facts are established.
