Reza Zavvar has been an active contributor to his local community for years, his loved ones say. 

By Brad Ryan in Washington DC

Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC

The US government is threatening to deport an Iranian man to Australia — even though he has no connection to Australia and has lived in the US since 1985.

Reza Zavvar, a 52-year-old recruiter from Maryland, has been targeted for deportation because of a marijuana possession conviction from the 1990s, his lawyer says.

A court order means he cannot be returned to Iran because of the risk of persecution there.

So immigration authorities say they are sending him to either Australia or Romania after arresting him in the street near his home in late June.

"They got him while he was walking his dog in his quiet suburban neighbourhood," his lawyer, Ava Benach, told the ABC.

"And they detained him and sent him to Texas to hold him, and they said: 'We're gonna deport you to Australia or Romania.'

His family, friends and locals are fundraising for a legal fight. They say Mr Zavvar had been quietly contributing to his community for years, helping out his elderly neighbours and making sandwiches each week for those in need of food.

He had adopted his dog from a local shelter and recently moved in with his mother to help care for his grandmother.

"After 40 years of living in the US, Reza knows no other home," his sister, Maryam, wrote as part of an online petition.

"He waits in a privately run detention centre, thousands of miles from anything familiar, while bureaucrats decide his future."

Why Australia?

Mr Zavvar's case has highlighted a controversial strategy increasingly used by the Trump administration as part of its mass deportation regime — sending migrants to countries they have no connection to, sometimes using historical low-level misdemeanours as justification.

But immigration lawyers said they had not seen Australia listed as a destination before.

"Most of us in the immigration bar have been hearing about cases being sent to Central and South America," said Mahsa Khanbabai, an elected director on the American Immigration Lawyers Association board.

"Australia is not a country that we would normally consider to be in such a position."

The Australian government said it had not been contacted by US authorities about the case.

"There have been no new agreements made with the Trump administration on immigration," a government spokesperson said.

Despite repeated requests for clarification, neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) nor the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained why Australia had been selected.

But in a statement, DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: "ICE continues to try and find a country willing to accept this criminal illegal alien."

'Gentle giant'

Mr Zavvar's sister said her brother had "built his life in Maryland, surrounded by his loving family, including his parents, sister, and cousins".

"He was a natural athlete, excelling in football during high school, where he was affectionately known as a 'gentle giant' — competitive on the field but kind and warm-hearted off."

He had a green card, allowing him permanent residence in the US — but his lawyer says his past marijuana-related conviction was later used to jeopardise that status.

In 2004, an airport agent noticed his conviction and started a process that could have led to deportation. 

But three years later, a judge issued a "withholding of removal" order, preventing his return to Iran.

DHS says his previous conviction — for attempted possession of a controlled substance — remains a reason to deport him.

"Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the US," the department's Ms McLaughlin said.

"Zavvar had almost 20 years to self-deport and leave the United States."

Deportation deals

The Trump administration has been pushing other countries to accept deportees who cannot return to their countries of origin: either because those countries will not take them back, or because of protection orders like Mr Zavvar's.

The "withholding of removal" orders theoretically allow the US to deport the migrant to a different country, but that is historically rare.

"We've never really seen people being sent to third countries in my 25 years of practice," Ms Khanbabai said.

"When the UK started doing that a few years ago, I remember thinking, what a horrendous situation, thank God the United States doesn't do that. And now here we are seeing the US carry out these very same inhumane, what I would consider illegal, practices."

The US government recently struck deals with several African countries, which have opened the door to more of these deportations.

Small numbers of migrants — from countries including Vietnam, Cuba and Jamaica — have been sent to South Sudan and Eswatini.

And this week Rwanda said it would accept up to 250 deportees, "in part because nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement, and our societal values are founded on reintegration and rehabilitation".

The US has not confirmed details of the Rwanda deal. But when Mr Trump's "border czar", Tom Homan, was asked when deportees would be sent to Rwanda, he said: "Working on it." >>>