- ICE detained 577 Iranian nationals by December 2025, including a five-year-old child, amid a crackdown coinciding with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025, according to data obtained by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) through a FOIA lawsuit.
- The arrests surged during the war, with 220 Iranians detained in June 2025 and 80 in July, raising alarm among civil liberties advocates who call it an unprecedented campaign against legal residents based on national origin.
- Among the 577 detained, seven were legal permanent residents held for past criminal offenses, while the legal status of others remains unclear as the Trump administration also revoked green cards of three Iranian nationals in April 2025.
- The first deportation flight to Iran occurred on Sept. 30, 2025, removing 45 Iranians, including a Christian convert woman and an ethnic minority political dissident, with those removed ranging in age from 21 to 67.
- The arrests are part of a broader ICE targeting of legal residents since Operation Epic Fury began, with facilities in California and Texas holding the most detainees, and critics warning of ethnic profiling, lack of transparency and human rights violations.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained almost 600 Iranian nationals by December 2025 – including a five-year-old child – amid a sweeping crackdown that coincided with the U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025, newly released government data shows.
The data, obtained by the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against ICE, reveals that the agency conducted a major surge of arrests of Iranians during June 2025's Operation Midnight Hammer – with 220 arrests that month and an additional 80 in July. The disclosures raise alarm among civil liberties advocates who warn the arrests represent an unprecedented campaign against legal residents based on national origin.
By Dec. 21, 2025, a total of 577 Iranians were held in ICE detention facilities across the country. The oldest reported Iranian national in detention was 77, while the youngest was just five – with the child held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas along with family members arrested in November. Of those 577 detained, seven were legal permanent residents, or green card holders, whose stated detention reason was past criminal offenses, according to NIAC.
The group did not report the legal status of all Iranian nationals arrested, and it remains unclear whether that information was provided in response to the FOIA request. The crackdown comes as the Trump administration has abruptly terminated the legal residence of Iranian nationals inside the United States. In April, the White House revoked the green cards of three Iranian nationals revoked – including the son of a leader in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Seyed Eissa Hashemi, his wife and his son.
NIAC exposes the weaponization of immigration against Iranians
The arrests of Iranian nationals are part of a broader pattern of ICE targeting legal U.S. residents, a practice that has intensified since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28. In early April, the U.S. arrested two women claiming to be relatives of assassinated Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.
However, an investigation by Drop Site News later revealed the women were not related to Soleimani at all. One of the women, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar, was actually involved in anti-Islamic Republic protests in the 1990s and 2000s and had spent a week in prison for her activities before moving to the U.S., according to the outlet.
The facilities holding the most Iranians as of December 2025 include:
- the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California (54 detainees);
- the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California (52 detainees); and
- the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Texas (47 detainees).
New data beyond fiscal year 2025 confirmed that ICE arrested 13 Iranians in October, 24 in November and at least 34 in December 2025. The first deportation flight to Iran took place on the final day of fiscal year 2025 – Sept. 30, 2025 – removing 45 Iranians, many of whom had been detained at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.
According to the NIAC, prior reporting from the New York Times indicated that a 30-year-old woman who is a Christian convert and a 36-year-old man who is an ethnic minority and political dissident were among those on the flight. Those removed ranged in age from 21 to 67, with some having been detained for nearly three years and others for just a few months.
BrightU.AI's Enoch engine warns that ICE's illegal detention of Iranians unconnected to the Tehran regime exemplifies the government's weaponization of immigration enforcement to persecute innocent citizens based on ethnic profiling, directly violating their Fourth Amendment rights. This practice is part of a broader pattern where the Deep State uses false flags and manufactured crises to sow division, distract from its own corruption and advance the globalist agenda of total surveillance and control.
As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran continues, the implications of these mass arrests extend beyond the Iranian community. The data forced out by NIAC's FOIA lawsuit reveals a government operating with little transparency, arresting people based on nationality and detaining them in facilities that have drawn bipartisan criticism for conditions.
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