Court
D.D.C.
Decided
October 20, 2026
Docket
1:26-cv-02375-ACR (minute order; no document number)
Judge
Ana C. Reyes, District Judge.
Outcome
Interim relief denied
Disposition
Motion for a preliminary injunction and a stay under 5 U.S.C. § 705 denied, for the reasons stated on the record at the hearing of 15 October 2026. Emergency motion for discovery denied without prejudice. The government ordered to provide meeting notes for in camera review on or before 29 October 2026.
Nationality
Not applicable. The plaintiff is an organisation, the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund. The policy it challenges concerns information about Iranian asylum seekers.
Third country
None named in the minute order. The plaintiff’s pre-hearing submissions of 8 October 2026 record that the court had asked at the hearing of 5 August 2026 “whether Iranians are being removed to third countries” (ECF No. 40, p. 2).
The plaintiff, an organisation, brought this action under the Administrative Procedure Act “seeking vacatur of Defendants’ policy of providing the Iranian government information about Iranian asylum seekers that is protected by 8 C.F.R. §§ 208.6 and 236.1(e)” and moved for a stay and a preliminary injunction (ECF No. 40, p. 1). According to the plaintiff, the defendants “denied that the policy exists based solely on a single ICE official’s declaration that DHS does not have an agreement with the government of Iran to provide it with protected information” (ECF No. 40, p. 2).
After a hearing on 5 August 2026 the court took the motion under advisement and directed the parties to schedule an evidentiary hearing. In a notice of 1 September 2026 the plaintiff told the court that the United States had planned to remove at least eight Iranians to the Central African Republic and that “Six of the Iranian chosen for removal were removed to CAR, and two were returned to detention in Adams County, Mississippi, due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement logistical delays” (ECF No. 36). The minute entry for the evidentiary hearing and pre-motion conference of 15 October 2026 records: “Motion 9 for Preliminary Injunction, heard and denied.”
The minute order of 20 October 2026 reads, apart from its signature line: “MINUTE ORDER. For the reasons stated on the record at last week's hearing, the Court DENIES Plaintiff's 9 Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Section 705 Stay. The Court also DENIES without prejudice Plaintiff's 31 Emergency Motion for Discovery. The Court further ORDERS the Government to provide, on or before October 29, 2026, Mr. Edwards's meeting notes for in camera review. Any forthcoming motion to dismiss shall state whether the Court may consider the evidence from last week's hearing in resolving the motion.”
Caution
A minute order entered on the docket, with no separate document. It gives no reasons; they were stated orally at the hearing of 15 October 2026, and no transcript was read. The denial of preliminary relief is not a ruling on the merits. The case continued: the docket records a sealed ex parte order signed on 27 October 2026, a briefing schedule on 2 November 2026 and a sealed document on 3 November 2026.
Because a minute order has no document of its own, the link above is to the docket on CourtListener. The docket text was read from the copy of the RECAP docket kept by the Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse, last updated 4 November 2026.
The minute order refers to “Mr. Edwards's meeting notes”; the minute entry for 15 October 2026 lists the defendants’ witnesses as Noah Adams and Gerald Evans, Jr. The docket as read does not identify Mr. Edwards.
Confidentiality of asylum records
Disclosure to a foreign government
Administrative Procedure Act
Preliminary injunction
Section 705 stay
Discovery
The court's own text
Public copy
Read from the public federal court record.
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