U.S. Deports 3 Former IRGC Members on First Post‑Crackdown Flight to Tehran

The Department of Homeland Security says it deported three Iranian nationals identified as former members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — Ehsan Khaledi, Mohammad Mehrani and Morteza Nasirikakolaki — on a Sunday charter flight that returned 14 Iranians to Tehran. DHS says all three men entered the U.S. illegally via the southern border in 2024 and that each had an executable final removal order from a federal immigration judge, making this the first deportation flight to Tehran since Iran’s latest anti‑government protests triggered a deadly crackdown. The article notes the flight is the third returning Iranian nationals since September 2025 and comes as President Trump has moved a carrier strike group toward Iran while publicly warning Tehran he may order strikes if mass executions of protesters continue. Human‑rights advocates had spotlighted the flight after two gay Iranian men slated for removal — whose lawyer warned of a high risk of execution if sent back — were taken off the manifest and placed in quarantine for measles exposure. The report underscores how Trump’s interior‑enforcement campaign and his escalating confrontation with Iran are intersecting in sensitive deportation decisions involving alleged former IRGC personnel and at‑risk asylum seekers.