By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed on Tuesday alleged that President Donald Trump’s administration illegally shared confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with Iran’s government, allegations the Trump administration denied.
Lawyers with the left-leaning Public Citizen Litigation Group were representing the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund in the suit.
The lawsuit alleged that the Trump administration adopted a policy last year of providing Iran “with confidential information from the immigration files of Iranians seeking asylum in the United States.”
“Many of the asylum seekers are pro-democracy protestors, members of religious minorities such as Evangelical Christians, or members of the LGBTQ community who seek refuge in the United States because of the grave dangers they face in Iran,” it added.
The policy continued despite last year’s U.S. strikes against Iran during the Israel-Iran war, Iran’s crackdown on protesters and the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran that was launched on February 28, the lawsuit alleged.
“These allegations that ICE shared asylum application records with the Iranian government are FALSE,” the Department of Homeland Security, of which the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is a part, said in a statement.
“ICE is committed to ensuring that illegal aliens are informed of their right to communicate with their consular representatives.”
ICE has been the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown and deportation drive, which has been widely condemned by human rights groups as being in violation of free speech and due process rights. Rights groups also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment in the U.S., particularly for ethnic minorities, who have raised concerns about racial profiling.
Trump casts his policies as aiming to reduce illegal immigration and improve domestic security.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
It alleged that Iranian detainees who met with an “Iranian Interest Section official” had said the official had knowledge of their immigration cases, including the details of their asylum applications.
Since there is no Iranian consulate within the United States, consular functions for Iran “were handled by the Iranian Interest Section housed within the Embassy of Pakistan,” the lawsuit said.
The suit is seeking appointment of an independent monitor to prevent any disclosures to Iran and halt any alleged information sharing with Iran’s government, according to the filing.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in WashingtonEditing by Bill Berkrot)
