Bulwark Takes - Trump Deporting Gay Men to Iran Is a Death Sentence

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

Tim Miller gives his take on one of the most morally disgraceful moments of the Trump presidency. Trump told protesters in Iran that America had their back. He encouraged them to stay in the streets and keep fighting a brutal theocratic regime. Then the Iranian government began executing them by the thousands and the United States walked away. Now, in the middle of that crackdown, the Trump administration is planning to deport Iranian asylum seekers back to Iran, including gay men who face execution simply for who they are.Please contact your senators and representatives: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Hey, everybody. It's Tim Moore from the Bullwark. I have some more just really tragic, disheartening, maddening immigration news for you. And I think this story is particularly significant because it ties into a Trump foreign policy issue that I think has gone overlooked and that I wish I had a chance to talk about more this week. And that's what Trump has been doing with regards to Iran and the protests in Iran. So I want to first get into the story about what's the story about what's the moment. coming Sunday and then talk to you about the implications. It is, like so many of these immigration stories right now, so tragic and just blood boiling, blood curdling, even.

My cortisol is spiking. Shout out to my colleagues at MS Now, Laura Baron Lopez, and David wrote for their work on this. The Trump administration is planning to deport at least 40 Iranian nationals back to Iran as early as this coming Sunday. according to three sources with knowledge of the flight. The flight is going to be leaving from Arizona. Members of the group being deported by ICE fear for their lives, rightly, if they're sent back to Iran,

according to relatives and lawyers that these reporters spoke to. I want to highlight a couple of those deportees in particular. Two of them are Iranians who are gay men. They told their lawyer Rebecca Wolf that they are set to be deported. on that Sunday flight. Being gay is illegal and punishable by death in Iran. They executed two gay men in 2022. These deportees are terrified, according to their lawyer. She said that one calls every 45 minutes begging me to save his life. She's hoping for a court to fully hear their claims before they're sent back to a country where their homosexuality is punishable by death. Both men,

just for their backstory, they had fled. Iran four years ago after they'd already been arrested by the country's morality police and we're awaiting a likely death sentence. So, I mean, we're giving them a death sentence, but sending them back to a place where they had a death sentence, we're giving these two men a death sentence. They had come to our country looking for asylum and we're waiting for their asylum claims to be adjudicated. There's a third Iranian who is part of this deportation flight. MS now spoke to a relative of theirs. This Iranian national has American children,

has children who are U.S. citizens. They were picked up by ICE after living in the U.S. for years. Their family is afraid that he could be detained or killed if they returned to Iran. This person came here as a minor and lived in the U.S. for years. They did have a minor nonviolent criminal offense, we should say. But was regularly checking in with ICE. And recently, as we've seen all across the country, ICE is picking on people who are doing what they should be doing, showing up for their check-ins and nabbing them and detaining them.

And in this case, potentially deporting them to Iran. This story would be bad enough as it is. Again, it's just like, really America cannot find a way to accommodate people fleeing Iran. Isn't that the whole fucking purpose of America? You know, isn't that with the whole premise of the country? This is a place where people who are discriminated against based on religion or based on, you know, their personal freedoms could come here and start a new life. Isn't that the story of the founders?

Isn't that the story of the country? Like, we cannot accommodate this. We cannot accommodate these 40 Iranians who are trying to escape the Sharia law hell where they might be jailed or killed. we can't accommodate somebody who has American kids, let them stay in the country, or let them give them the opportunity to apply to either stay in the country or to find a third country to go to. There's nothing we can do.

We have to put them on a flight and send them back to the mullis to be killed. Really? That's what we have to do right now. It's sick. It's sick in any context. It's sick at any time. And the gay men, again, they have. have an acute fear. That's what asylum is. That's what the refugee system is. We welcome people

who have an acute fear that they will be killed if they stay in their home country. So that is why they were, they came to America in the first place. That's why they applied for asylum. That's why they were, you know, going through that process. And for us, now to decide, hey, no, we're going to send you back to a place where you had a death sentence just because you were gay. we're going to and we are going to give you no opportunity to live here temporarily, even though you've been following the laws, haven't broken any laws, or contributing to the society. It is so fucking heinous and depraved.

You would wish that everyone would just unify against us. So this policy is disgusting no matter what. We've talked about it in the context of so many other stories over the last year. But to me, this one is particularly bad. because of the foreign policy implications. Now, I just want to walk back. It was not too long ago, like this month, that Donald Trump said to the protesters in the streets of Iran, continue. We support you.

The Iranian regime is sick. The Ayatollah is sick. The Mullahs are sick. We support you. Stay out there. Regardless of what you think the right policy should have been in support of them, you know, whether that was strikes against the regime or weapons or assistance for the protesters or other diplomatic efforts, what we said to those protesters would there be some support, right?

That you can feel good being out in the streets knowing that America will have your back. That's what the president of the United States said of them. And many of them continued protesting. and the Iranian regime started murdering them in mass. Thousands upon thousands are dead in Iran. Body bags are lining the streets in Iran because the Iranian regime is cracking down on people that are in the streets calling for their freedom, calling for economic opportunity. So to send people back to that country,

country is insult upon injury. It's a horror on top of a horror. Like our country, which is which in the past has been this beacon of freedom, beacon of hope in the world. It's said that we'd support people fighting for rights and democracy abroad. In this case, said that we are going to do that. Again, because of whether you think the regime changes the right plan or whatever the right opinion was we made a promise, public promise, to these people in the streets that we're going to support them. And instead, we pulled the rug. We've abandoned them. And as a result, many are dead. And so we're in the midst now of this brutal crackdown in Iran, where the Ayatollah and the government feels like they have carte blanche to execute anyone that challenges. And

challenges the regime. For us to just abandon those people is a moral stain on the country. Okay. Like, we should be doing something. Or we shouldn't have promised anything, right? But at this point, we should be doing something. And instead of protecting the people that we said that we are going to protect, that we encouraged to stay in the streets, instead we're going to let them get killed.

And we're going to send more people to the slaughter. what? And again, you might not agree with this. At least it'd be consistent to say, hey, we're going to push for regime change in Iran. We're going to support the protesters and we're going to send the people that have said they needed asylum here home because we're going to give them an opportunity in their own country. A ton of potential ways that could go wrong, like that at least is a consistent worldview, right? To like say that we oppose the regime and that we support the protesters, but then not give them any support, let them get killed. And then send a bunch of people back to get killed themselves or to be detained or to live a life always looking over their shoulder wondering when the morality police will come for them. It is just a heinous abdication of our duty. And I know there are people out there. I know because I've seen them. I know there are Trump supporters that wanted him to act here because they do still believe.

in fighting these horrific oppressors. These people exist. And I just, I call on them to look at what is happening here. To look at Donald Trump, promising to support the protesters, backing off that promise, letting them get killed, and then deporting people who are trying to flee that terror and oppression and sending them right back in to the place they tried to find shelter from here in America. It's a, it's just, it's a despicable policy that is an affront to what has made this country special,

even if flawed, what has made our country special for so long. So hopefully some attention can be raised with us. We've seen them back off. So I'd encourage people to contact their representatives about this Iranian deportation flight that's coming on Sunday and try to encourage them to put the breaks on it because it is a wrong policy at any time. But in this moment, it is an absolute disgrace. Subscribe to the feed. Appreciate you guys. We'll see you soon.