The United States deported 40 Iranian migrants to Iran on January 26 in the third deportation flight since September, Fox News reported, citing the American Immigration Council.

The third group of deported Iranians arrived at Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKA) following a lengthy journey from the United States via Cairo, and Kuwait comes as the Trump administration's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency conducted the deportation as part of what the US government describes as a broader strategy of deportation of green card holders and other immigrants to the country. 

The American Immigration Council, which represents some Iranians facing deportation, confirmed the flight marks the third such deportation to Iran since September.

Human rights groups claimed the decision could amount to a death sentence for deported Iranian migrants, and the fate of those who have already forcibly returned is currently unknown, considering the securitised atmosphere in the country in recent weeks due to the ongoing protests, which killed more than 3,117.

The implementation of Trump's immigration policies by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sparked widespread protests from American citizens in recent months, with two deaths in Minnesota in recent weeks of US citizens battling immigration officers. 

60-year-old Reza Mir Akhouri, a green card holder who had lived in the United States for 30 years and worked in radiology, stated he was arrested without explanation at his workplace. "Several large men with covered faces came to my workplace and detained us without any explanation.

"I had a lawyer; I hadn't committed any violation, but they said it was a direct order," he stated. "They said it came from Mr Trump. They said their country is at war with Iran and they must detain Iranians," he said to Tasnim news agency reporter at immigration control at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport (IKA).

He described a large camp in Nevada holding Iranian women without minimum sanitary and food facilities. "It was very deplorable... horrible," he stated to Tasnim news agency.

Mir Akhouri reported 42 days battling pneumonia without proper medical care. "There was no doctor, no MRI machine, no medical facilities at all," he stated. Some detainees contracted viral illnesses and were quarantined.

He described his initial detention at Los Angeles (LAX) airport. "They said you must go for secondary inspection. Before I understood what was happening, they said 'put on handcuffs.' I asked 'for what reason?' They said 'if you sign right now and return the green card, you can go back on this same plane.' I said 'I won't sign.'"

He spent three days in solitary confinement beneath the airport before being transferred to Victorville detention centre with handcuffs and ankle restraints. His total detention lasted 90 days without visitation or phone contact rights, he said in the interview.

Several detainees lived in the United States for 40 years with American spouses, businesses and tax records. Detention periods ranged from four to 16 months.

One middle-aged woman travelled to the United States to find her son, but had no information about his whereabouts during detention, and remains unaware of his fate.

"Don't go. It's all lies. They take your soul and mind captive, and after 30 years of life, suddenly someone like Trump appears and separates you from everything without any reason," Mir Akhouri stated.

The US earlier deported 119 asylum seekers of various nationalities to Panama, including Iranian nationals who claim they were transferred without notice or deportation documentation, IntelliNews reported in February 2025.

The group of deportees from the US includes nationals from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. None reportedly signed deportation papers before their transfer to Panama in what appears to be the latest push by the Trump administration to export immigrants to other American countries.