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The Justice Department announced on Friday that Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old Afghan national who lived in Fort Worth, Texas, has been removed from the United States. Hers was the first case ever heard by the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.
The court issued its removal order on August 20. Officials unsealed it on September 11, after Zada had returned to Afghanistan. She conceded that she is an alien terrorist and waived her right to appeal. She is now permanently barred from entering the United States.
Zada has never been charged with a crime. Prosecutors say she supported an ISIS-inspired plan for a mass shooting on Election Day in 2024. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were arrested on October 7, 2024. Both had bought two AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition and 10 magazines from an undercover FBI employee. Abdullah was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Tawhedi, 28, pleaded guilty to two terrorism offenses and is awaiting sentencing.
According to the criminal complaint, the family sold off its furniture, computers, a mobile phone and two vehicles to raise money. Zada signed a contract to sell the family home. The family also bought one-way tickets to Kabul for travel shortly before Election Day.
Attorney General Todd Blanche certified the removal application on July 15. Zada first appeared in open court on July 30, and Chief Judge Joan N. Ericksen later signed the order. The government used classified material to make its case. It also gave Zada's two federal public defenders about half a terabyte of supporting documents. Blanche called the outcome "a win for national security and the rule of law."
Congress created the court in 1996 to remove noncitizens whose cases rest on intelligence that cannot be made public. No administration had used it in the 30 years since. As CBS News reported, people brought before the court cannot review the classified evidence against them, and they cannot challenge how the government collected it. Zada's public defenders had argued those rules breached her due process rights before she agreed to leave. Either side can appeal an order to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
The case drew on the Justice Department's National Security Division, the FBI, the US Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations and US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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