The timing of this is nothing short of remarkable; on Friday, on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the Department of Justice issued a press release describing the first person deported from the United States by the reinstated Alien Terrorist Removal Court. Nazira Haji Zada received a removal order on August 20, and as of now has been returned to her native Afghanistan. Good news.
The goblin in question is the matriarch and primary planner for a family of goblins accused of plotting terror attacks on the day of the 2024 elections.
In the first-ever case before the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC), Nazira Haji Zada, 47, an Afghan national previously residing in Fort Worth, Texas, was removed from the United States after conceding that she is an alien terrorist. As the matriarch in her family, 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. The ATRC issued an order of removal on Aug. 20 that was unsealed earlier today following her return to her country of origin. This was the first case ever brought before the ATRC, which Congress established decades ago, and which no previous administration had used. Zada is now permanently inadmissible to the United States.
That's good news; what's more, the action proceeded with a celerity we aren't accustomed to seeing in these kinds of proceedings.
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. ATRC Chief Judge Joan N. Ericksen presided over that hearing and later signed the removal order. In compliance with the ATRC statute, the government used classified information to establish that Zada is an alien terrorist. Additionally, the government provided Zada and her lawyers, two federal public defenders, with approximately half a terabyte of documents supporting the government’s case. With her lawyers, Zada conceded that she is an alien terrorist and waived appeal of the removal order, terminating her previous status.
Good. So, she's going back to Afghanistan, and much good may it do her.
We covered Zada's arrest and the beginning of her legal case when it began in July, noting then that she was an "ISIS insider." The case proceeded through a legal challenge over President Trump's use of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, in which the administration was victorious. The press release from DOJ also covers what happened to the two would-be shooters who were involved in the plan. One has already agreed to be returned to Afghanistan after serving his prison sentence; the other goblin is awaiting sentencing, but it's a safe bet he'll eventually be on a plane back to Kabul as well.
Tawhedi and Abdullah Haji Zada were arrested on Oct. 7, 2024, after purchasing firearms and ammunition to be used in an Election Day terrorist attack from an undercover FBI employee. Nazira’s son Abdullah, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, entered his guilty plea as an adult and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. As part of the plea agreement, Abdullah stipulated to the entry of a judicial order of removal from the United States to Afghanistan following his term of incarceration. Abdullah acknowledged that the order of removal would terminate his lawful permanent resident status, and waived his right to appeal the conviction except in limited circumstances or seek any form of appeal or relief from his removal and deportation, including but not limited to, seeking asylum. Tawhedi, 28, pled guilty to two terrorism-related offenses: conspiring and attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and receiving, attempting to receive, and conspiring to receive firearms and ammunition in furtherance of a federal crime of terrorism on June 13, 2025, and is awaiting sentencing.
This is a win, one we should, on this day of all days, be especially pleased about. But for every Zada that is caught and deported, there are many more still here; the previous administration allowed literally millions of people from all over the world to enter the United States with no questions asked. So, there's a lot more work to do here. This may well be the first use of this legal process, of this reconstituted court, but it had better not be the last; that much is certain. People like those who struck the Trade Center and Pentagon today are still here, in the United States, and we can be sure that some of them are still plotting.
So, yes, this is a win. Let's see a lot more of those.
Editor’s Note: Democrats are fanning the flames and raising the rhetoric by comparing ICE to the Gestapo, fascists, and secret police.
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