An attorney representing two people who were deported to Iran this week alleges the U.S. removed them without due process and said they are now at risk of persecution in their home country.
Ali Herischi told ABC News that two of his clients, who he said entered the U.S. through the Southern border to claim asylum in the past year, recently "disappeared" from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator system and then were deported without notice to Iran.
Herischi said that one of the deportees he represents is a Christian convert who entered the country earlier this year with his pregnant wife.
Herischi told ABC News that his client's asylum claim was denied after he was detained and he was issued an order of removal. The client's wife, who recently gave birth, remains in the U.S. and is not currently detained, he said.
"We tried multiple times to ask for his appeal," Herischi said, adding, "And suddenly, without any information, we realized that he disappeared from [the ICE] detainee locator and then the news broke that Iranians had been deported back to Iran."
Earlier this week, an Iranian official announced about 120 Iranian nationals detained in the U.S. would be returned to Iran in the coming weeks, according to a report in Iranian state media.
The U.S. has not yet acknowledged the deportations.
"We were shocked and tried to find out what's going on," Herischi told ABC News.
Herischi said that his client's wife was able to briefly speak with her husband who told her that he was "shackled and handcuffed all the way to Iran."
Herischi called the deportations "unconscionable."
He told ABC News that, overall, he represents 25 people who are worried about being deported to Iran.
"It was so wrong, and unfortunately these are the same people that ... U.S. foreign policy tries to protect," Herischi said. "These are those who stand up against the regime, who pay a price for standing up against the regime, and then you give them back directly to the hand of evil."
ABC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security about the deportations of Iranian nationals but did not immediately receive a response.