EXCLUSIVE: More than 300 Iranians apprehended by Border Patrol under Trump

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square 

Since President Donald Trump has taken office, 307 Iranians who attempted to illegally enter the country have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents. 

The number accounts for Border Patrol apprehensions nationwide between ports of entry and excludes U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehensions at ports of entry.  

The Center Square obtained the information from a Border Patrol agent on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. 

The news comes after at least 700 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members have been identified in Canada who pose a national security threat, as U.S.-Canada border security threats continue, The Center Square reported.

It also comes after 1,500 Iranians were apprehended by Border Patrol agents nationwide from 2021 to 2024. Under the Biden administration, Border Patrol agents were instructed to release them even though Iranians are considered “Special Interest Aliens” and citizens of a designated State Sponsor of Terrorism. 

Border Patrol agents released nearly half of the Iranians apprehended during the Biden administration, 729, who Trump officials say weren’t properly vetted, The Center Square exclusively reported.

SIAs are noncitizens identified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as those “known or evaluated to possibly have a nexus to terrorism” who “potentially poses a national security risk to the United States or U.S. interests,” DHS has explained. DHS has never made SIA data public under any administration. At least 73,000 SIAs were arrested under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported. 

Now, under the Trump administration, none of the 307 Iranians apprehended were released into the country. Instead, they were transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be detained and processed for prosecution or removal. 

The U.S. has historically relied on diplomacy and agreements with other countries to accept citizens being returned to them. Under the first Trump administration, agreements were reached with several Central American countries and with Mexico to accept their citizens. Under the Biden administration, these agreements weren’t renewed and more than a dozen parole programs were created to fast-track millions of inadmissible foreign nationals into the country.

Repatriation and deportation agreements have never been reached with communist countries, those designated as “Countries of Particular Concern” or state sponsors of terrorism, like Iran. Their citizens are also designated as SIAs and added to a federal watch list, The Center Square reported.

The Trump administration is currently looking to apprehend at least 18,000 known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) who it says were released into the U.S. during the Biden administration, including hundreds of Iranian SIAs. The total also includes 2,000 Afghans released into the U.S. with “ties to terrorist organizations,” The Center Square reported.

Because Iran has never agreed to take back their citizens and because the U.S. is currently attacking Iran, Iranians who illegally entered the U.S. are apprehended, detained in the U.S. and prosecuted if charged with a crime. Or they are detained in the U.S. and sent to another country that has entered into an agreement with the Trump administration to detain them.

There are at least 24 countries that have entered into such agreements with the U.S., according to Third Country Deportation Watch. 

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled the administration could continue its third-country deportation effort after a federal judge in Massachusetts has repeatedly tried to block it. The Supreme Court has also twice blocked the same judge’s rulings, arguing the deportation plan may continue. 

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