The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed this week that three men deported to Iran recently, found to have entered America illegally, were “known or suspected” members of the terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
At a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran — President Donald Trump announced last week that a U.S. Navy “armada” was moving into the Middle East in response to a brutal crackdown on peaceful protesters believed to have killed tens of thousands of people — the two countries negotiated an agreement to repatriate Iranian nationals. The flight, which the Iranian government confirmed was carrying about 20 Iranians, left the United States this week.
Some Democrat politicians condemned the deportations, claiming that they would endanger “LGBTQ Iranians.” In reality, DHS identified three of those deported as having affiliations with a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and the two known “LGBTQ Iranians” in the U.S. immigration process are reportedly engaged in the legal process to request legitimate political asylum.
DHS identified the three known or suspected IRGC terrorists as Ehsan Khaledi, Mohammad Mehrani, and Morteza Nasirikakolaki.
“Both Mehrani and Khaledi entered the U.S. illegally in Southern California in 2024 — Mehrani in September and Khaledi in October,” DHS explained in a press release on Tuesday. “Nasirikakolaki entered illegally in November 2024, when he was encountered by Border Patrol near San Luis, Arizona.”
“70 percent of those arrested by ICE are convicted criminals or have criminal charges,” it added. “During President Trump’s first year, ICE arrested 43,305 potential national security risks. Under President Trump ICE has arrested and removed over 1,400 KSTs [known or suspected terrorists] and arrested more than 7,400 gang members.”
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin applauded the expulsion of the known or suspected IRGC members.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, the Department of Homeland Security is getting the worst of the worst out of our country and keeping them out — including violent gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and, in this instance, known or suspected terrorists,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “The Trump administration will not allow criminal illegal aliens who wish to inflict harm upon innocent Americans to walk the streets of our communities. They will be arrested, and they will be deported.”
Iranian diplomat Abolfazl Mehrabadi, who operates in Washington unofficially as Iran does not have an embassy in America, confirmed that Iran would receive a flight of Iranian nationals this week. The flight reportedly left Phoenix, Arizona, and would repatriate the Iranians through Egypt and Kuwait. The flight was the third of its kind since President Trump began his second term in office a year ago.
Mehrabadi suggested that Iran would accept several other nationals in the future as a measles outbreak at a detention center complicated their planned return.
“Initially, around 40 Iranian detainees were scheduled to depart, but due to weather conditions and the outbreak of measles, the number dropped to 20,” he explained.
The deportation flight this week was the third of its kind to Iran since President Trump returned to office. In early December, the Iranian regime confirmed that it would accept 55 citizens deported from the United States, claiming that the deportees wanted to return home due to “anti-immigration and discriminative policy against foreign nationals particularly Iranians by the United States.” Tehran nonetheless admitted that the reasons for their deportation were “legal reasons and breach of immigration regulations.”
The first deportation flight to Iran left the United States in September.
While the Iranian regime has attempted to portray American immigration enforcement as callous, Iranian-Americans have called for even more deportations of individuals in the country with ties to the violent regime, particularly in the aftermath of the bloody repression of protests that began in late December.
“The pampered offspring of Iran’s ruling elite are living the American Dream as the country’s brutal regime kills protesters by the thousands — and fed-up Iranians in California and across the U.S. want them out,” the New York Post reported this month. Iranian-Americans reportedly began sharing a petition urging the United States to deport more Iranians enjoying friendly relations with established member of the Iranian government, in particularly naming Eissa Hashemi, the son of former Iranian vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar, and Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani, the daughter of Ali Larijani.
The IRGC is a formal wing of the Iranian government designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019. It operates both as a domestic repressive force against political dissidents and as a foreign terrorist operation. Through its Quds Force, the IRGC helps coordinate violence by Iran’s many terrorist proxy organizations, including Hezbollah, the Houthi terrorists or Yemen, the various Shiite militias in Iraq, and other groups. The IRGC also plays a significant role in strengthening the bond between Tehran and the socialist regime in Venezuela.
In addition to the United States, the government of Argentina designated the IRGC Quds Force a terrorist organization this month, citing evidence linking the IRGC to the 1992 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires. The AMIA bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack in the Western Hemisphere prior to September 11, 2001.