A legal instrument dormant for thirty years was finally set in motion when Nazira Haji Zada, an Afghan permanent resident in Texas, was deported after acknowledging her role in a family plot to carry out a mass shooting on Election Day 2024 in the name of the Islamic State. Her removal through the Alien Terrorist Removal Court — a tribunal Congress created in 1996 but never before invoked — marks the first time the government has successfully used this mechanism to expel a non-citizen on terrorism grounds. The case arrives at the enduring fault line between national security imperatives and th
Afghan woman deported in first use of specialized terrorism court
Zada's family members plotted a mass shooting on Election Day 2024; her son received 15 years imprisonment and son-in-law awaits sentencing.