In early February, a federal judge was prepared to order the release of Esmael Rajabi, an Iranian citizen, from ICE custody after finding that the Trump administration was no closer to effecting his deportation.
but the administration US District Judge Kathleen Cardone convinced to waitInsisting that an update from the Iranian government – perhaps with the necessary travel documents to deport Rajabi – was imminent.
Then the Trump administration went to war against Iran. A few days after the February 28 strike, the administration appointed George W. Told the Bush appointed judge Rajabi’s exile “Under review in Tehran” but was hampered by “recent airspace closures”.
It was a euphemistic reference to a war that has not only disrupted the global economy but also disrupted ICE’s plan to deport dozens of Iranian citizens on delicately negotiated charter flights coordinated with the Iranian government.
Poor relations between Tehran and Washington have long made deportation of Iranians from the US challenging. Many Iranians fleeing the ayatollah’s regime have lived in the US for years, with immigration officials unable to deport them. some won legal protection After convincing immigration officials he was deported back to Iran, he faced threat of torture Or harassment.
But there have been several deportation flights to Iran since late last year — even as the Trump administration’s relations with Tehran became more aggressive — and others were under discussion as recently as February. Indeed, the Trump administration had hinted at the charter flight in court papers was scheduled for this weekClosed only because “flights to Iran have temporarily stopped” amid the war.
Now federal judges are facing the realities of the conflict as they decide whether Iranians held by ICE face the real possibility of being deported in the near future. If not, courts are bound by constitutional requirements to release detainees from immigration custody – or at least give them a chance to make their case for release at a bond hearing.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to address the impact of the Iran War on its deportation efforts, but guaranteed that anyone found by judges “has no right to remain in this country” would be deported.
“We will continue to use all legal options to deport illegal aliens,” the department said in a statement.
but on thursday Trump administration accepted That one man – who obtained an Iranian passport and was scheduled to be deported on a flight this month – should be released because there is “no significant possibility of removal in the near future.”
California-based US District Judge Jennifer Thurston, appointed by Biden, recently ordered The release of an Iranian man with an extensive criminal history occurred in part because there was no “significant possibility, or indeed no likelihood, that the petitioner would be removed to Iran.”
At the center of the challenge to the judges are the constitutional limits on ICE detention for people who are ordered deported under US federal law, which requires 90 days of detention for people with “final orders” of removal – people who have exhausted all their options to challenge their deportation in immigration and federal court – while ICE arranges their departure.
But in cases where deportees’ home countries refuse to take them – and no alternative country has agreed to be a substitute – the calculation changes. The Supreme Court has held that detaining people with final orders of deportation for more than six months raises constitutional questions and generally requires their release from custody.
That was the challenge for U.S. District Judge Kimberly Evanson as she evaluated a bid for the release of Iranian national Azad Rahmani. Rahmani, an ethnic Kurd who fled Iran in 2023, told the court he feared persecution if he returned. Rahmani did not attend an immigration hearing in July and was soon arrested by immigration officials near the Canadian border.
On March 6, Evanson, Considering the week-long warruled that Rahmani’s seven-month detention required him to have a chance to plead his case for bond: “Because petitioner has already been detained under prison-like conditions for more than seven months and has many months – if not years – left before there is any possibility of release or removal, the Court will grant his petition,” the Biden appointee wrote.
A person familiar with Rahmani’s case, granting anonymity to describe a pending case, said the immigration judge handling the bond hearing rejected Rahmani’s release bid, and labeled him a flight risk.
In another case, US District Judge Jesus Bernal ordered immediate releaseSaeed Tarki, a 63-year-old man with four US citizen children who has spent 35 years in the US, was ordered deported in 2003 and ICE detained him in 2012 after an unspecified conviction, but was released a few months later after Iran refused to issue him a travel document. Despite having no further encounters with the law, he was suddenly arrested in December 2025 amid the Trump administration’s push for mass deportation.
Bernal said that “ICE has not had any communication with the petitioner since December, except to inform him that the request for travel documents was made on February 18, 2026.”
The Obama-appointed judge concluded on March 11, “The Court has determined that the Government is no closer to removing petitioner than it has been for several decades since petitioner’s removal order was issued.”
