Legal US Resident Deported to Afghanistan in First Alien Terrorist Removal Court Case

Nazira Haji Zada, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, was deported to Afghanistan on September 12, 2026, becoming the first person ever removed through the Alien Terrorist Removal Court — a secretive legal mechanism that had existed for decades without being used. Her case did not contest the government's terrorism designation, leaving the evidence sealed and the proceedings closed, as the court's design allows. The event raises a question that has shadowed immigration law for generations: what does permanence mean when the architecture of exception is finally activated?