Mesa, Arizona: Deportation Flight for Iranian Detainees Canceled After Boarding, Attorney Says

MESA, Arizona: A US deportation flight meant to carry Iranian detainees toward Iran by way of Pakistan was abruptly canceled on Sunday morning, November 8, 2026, after at least eight people had boarded a plane in Mesa. Ali Rahnama, an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund who spoke to some of the detainees, told the Associated Press the flight was canceled without explanation and the detainees were taken back into detention.

What the filings say

In a court filing on Sunday, the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund told US District Judge Ana C. Reyes it learned on Saturday evening, from the US citizen wife of one detainee, that officials planned to remove 11 Iranian nationals at about 4 a.m. on Sunday, on a flight to Islamabad, Pakistan, with onward transfer to Iran on November 10. ABC News reported that 11 people, 10 men and one woman, had been scheduled, that the plane sat ready for takeoff, and that the group was returned to detention. Rahnama said at least eight people boarded before the cancellation. The detainees who boarded had been visited by a senior official of the Iranian Interests Section, the Iranian representative office inside Pakistan's embassy in Washington, and told Iran would carry them from Pakistan to Iran. Rahnama also said at least one man had agreed to return after nearly two years in detention. Homeland Security told AP that ICE does not comment on prospective removal operations, including flight schedules, manifests, destinations or case details.

The court fight behind the flight

The flight sits inside a lawsuit the fund filed on July 7, 2026, in Washington, which alleges the government shared confidential information about Iranian asylum seekers with Iranian officials. The department has denied the core allegation, and Reyes has not ruled on the claims. What she has done is control the timing. In an October 15 hearing, a transcript of which she ordered unsealed on November 5, Justice Department attorney Dimitar Georgiev-Remmel told the court the answer on removals to Iran had changed since August and was now yes, with travel through a third country. Reyes answered from the bench: "We are going to remove people in our custody to a country with which we are at war?" She said sending people back to that region meant, at a minimum, "a serious threat of certain death." Her order requires the government to notify the court within 24 hours of finalizing any plan to remove Iranians to Iran or through a third country, and to give five business days of written notice before any removal. She warned that violations would bring contempt proceedings.

No ruling yet

The fund's Sunday filing alleged an apparent violation of that order. The last written notice it could identify was a sealed government notice filed November 3, so five business days had not run before a 4 a.m. Sunday removal. The government responded under seal the same day. There has been no ruling, and no contempt finding. The Justice Department had already asked Reyes on November 4 to dissolve her notice order, with no ruling on that either. Three flights to Iran between September 2025 and January 2026 carried more than 100 Iranian nationals, AP reported. Sunday's would have been the first known attempt since then, and it ended on the ground in Mesa.