US deports Afghan woman over ISIS attack plot
47-year-old Afghan-origin Nazira Haji Zada became the first alien terrorist to be deported through the secret Alien Terrorist Removal Court which was established by Congress in 1996 to quickly remove suspected terrorists without revealed too much classified information in public procedings. She supported a plot to commit an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024 for which her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were previously arrested and convicted. Haji Zada was a lawful Green Card holder residing in Fort Worth, Texas.
The family also purchased one-way airfare for travel to Kabul, Afghanistan shortly before Election Day 2024 for its members, including for Zada and other minor children but not Abdullah and Tawhedi. She came to our country, betrayed it, and has now lost the right to live here and enjoy our democratic freedoms. Zada signed a contract to sell the family house.
“This is a historic and vitally important step in our work to protect the U.S. homeland from terrorism,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. This FBI and our Justice Department partners will protect the American people from the threat of terrorism, using all means necessary. ” The Justice Department described Nazira Haji Zada as the “matriarch” of the family who plotted the attack. But she did not ultimately make the trip, officials said.
“An individual who supported a plot by ISIS-sympathizing family members to commit an attack in America has paid the price for that. The government alleged she had made plans to move back to Afghanistan with other female relatives, selling the family home to raise funds for the trip, while the two men stayed behind in the United States to carry out the mass shooting. They started selling furniture, computers, a mobile phone, and the family’s two vehicles.
The application to remove Zada, certified by Attorney General Todd Blanche, was filed on July 15, and Zada appeared in open court for the first time on July 30. Alien Terrorist Removal Court Chief Judge Joan N Ericksen presided over that hearing and later signed the removal order.
Additionally, the government provided Zada and her lawyers, two federal public defenders, with approximately half a terabyte of documents supporting the government’s case, DOJ said. In compliance with the ATRC statute, the government used classified information to establish that Zada is an alien terrorist.