Trump administration announces first-ever deportation from terrorist removal court

The Justice Department on Friday noted the removal of an Afghan woman in the first-ever Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC) case, announcing the resolution on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, although the woman was deported last month.

Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old Afghan woman living in Fort Worth, Texas, was the first person to come before the previously dormant court.

Typically, the Justice Department seeks to convict and imprison those who are considered a terrorist threat rather than deport them. But in July they moved to deport Zada, whose sons were convicted in Oklahoma for their roles in a plot to carry out an attack on Election Day 2024.

According to court filings unsealed Friday, Zada was deported on Aug. 25 after she and her team of public defenders agreed she would be deported and accepted her designation as a terrorist, making her permanently barred from ever entering the U.S. again.

“This landmark case, resulting in the prompt removal of this alien terrorist to her country of origin, is a win for national security and the rule of law,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

“Those who support and condone terrorism should not be living in the United States, and this first-ever case before the ATRC shows how the Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country.”

The ATRC was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until July, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking Zada’s removal.

The case raised questions about the extent of Zada’s connection to ISIS, but the ATRC operates largely on classified information.

An unclassified summary unsealed Friday accuses Zada of having “worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology and have them pledge loyalty to ISIS.”

Zada is the mother and mother-in-law of two Afghan men who were convicted in Oklahoma for their roles in the 2024 Election Day plot. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced in November to 15 years in prison, and court records show he previously agreed to be removed from the U.S. after he is released from prison.

Her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group , and prosecutors have said he took steps to advance his attack plans by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family’s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.