Yesterday, Public Citizen sued to stop an illegal Trump administration maneuver that could put the lives of Iranian asylum seekers at greater risk.

The case is getting widespread coverage in outlets such as ABC News, The Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNN, The Independent, MS NOW, NBC News, The New Republic, The New York Times, NPR, Spectrum News, Truthout, The Washington Post, and many, many more.

The Trump administration — in violation of its own rules — has been giving the Iranian government information provided by people from Iran who are seeking asylum in the U.S. The Iranian government is then using that information to essentially tell our government which asylum seekers to expel back to Iran, where they may well face persecution, torture, or even death.

Here’s more about this new lawsuit:

• The Trump regime is rejecting asylum seekers from Iran — including pro-democracy activists, members of religious minorities, and LGBTQ+ people — by the thousands. These are people who fear being persecuted, tortured, or even killed if they are forcibly returned to their home country.

• What’s more, the Trump administration — in flagrant violation of its own regulations — has been giving the Iranian government confidential information that people have included in their asylum applications about why they fear for their safety.

• This illegal and inhumane revelation of the reasons people are seeking asylum in the first place could very well put them, along with their loved ones back in Iran, in even greater danger.

• Is this what Donald Trump meant when he told the Iranian people back in January — prior to the outset of his failed war against their country — that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY”?

• As Michael Kirkpatrick, the Public Citizen attorney leading this case, noted to the national media: “The law is clear. State Department and DHS regulations prohibit ICE officials from revealing information from asylum applications to foreign governments.”

• But the Trump administration is apparently more committed to its agenda of mass deportations — even involving a country it launched a senseless and catastrophic war against — than protecting human lives.

• So we are suing the Trump administration in federal court on behalf of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund. Our lawsuit asks the court to order the Trump administration to stop sharing asylum-applicant information with the government of Iran and to notify asylum seekers whose information was unlawfully shared.

Public Citizen has filed 43 lawsuits (so far) against the administration since Trump returned to power. Are these lawsuits alone enough to fully defeat Trump and MAGA? Of course not. But are they a meaningful part of the pushback that is the only chance we have to collectively save our country? No doubt about it.

What you and Public Citizen are doing together matters. What hundreds of other organizations, big and small, are doing matters. What millions upon millions of our fellow Americans are doing matters. We believe that to our core. We take solace in that. And we draw inspiration from that. We hope you do, too.

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