A flight carrying Iranian detainees being deported from the United States turned back on Tuesday after Pakistan reportedly declined to accept them. ABC News reported the incident on Wednesday, citing the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, or IALDF. It was the second unsuccessful effort in several days to deport the group.
The planned route would have taken the detainees to Pakistan before their onward transfer to Iran. Two sources familiar with the situation told ABC News that Pakistani authorities refused to receive them. The reason for that decision remained unclear.
An earlier departure from Mesa, Arizona, had been called off on Sunday. An attorney with the IALDF told ABC News that the detainees were already aboard the aircraft when that flight was canceled. They were subsequently taken back to a detention facility.
Responding on Wednesday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the people aboard Tuesday's flight had criminal histories involving arrests and convictions for offenses including assault, drug trafficking, child abuse, domestic battery and illegal weapon possession. The spokesperson also said everyone on the flight was subject to a final removal order.
The department defended the deportation effort, saying that people facing removal have their claims considered and receive due process. Its spokesperson said the administration would remove those whom a judge determined had no right to remain in the United States, and described the operation as part of the Trump administration's effort to undertake the largest deportation campaign in history through lawful means.
The failed flights followed criticism from US District Judge Ana Reyes over the administration's plan to send Iranian nationals home during the ongoing war, according to ABC News. At an October 15 hearing, Reyes required the government to give at least five days' notice before putting any individual on a vehicle or aircraft for removal. She also required 24 hours' notice of a finalized removal plan, according to a transcript unsealed last week and cited by ABC News.
Reyes warned at that hearing that violations of either notice requirement would prompt contempt proceedings against those involved. Her warning accompanied objections to returning people in US custody to Iran while the conflict continued.
The judge said the proposed destination was a country the United States had bombed, might bomb again and regarded as a declared enemy. She compared the planned deportations to sending people from the United States back to Nazi Germany in 1942, questioning the administration's decision to return detainees under those circumstances.
