The US Department of Justice has, for the first time, used the Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC) — a specialised federal court created by Congress in 1996 but never previously invoked — to deport an Afghan woman accused of supporting an ISIS-inspired plot to carry out a mass shooting on Election Day 2024. Nazira Haji Zada, 47, admitted before the court that she was an "alien terrorist" and waived her right to appeal before being removed to Afghanistan. Officials, including Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, hailed the case as a landmark national security precedent, though Zada's lawyers argued the proceedings denied her due process by withholding evidence from her defence team.

Zada's son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were previously convicted over the alleged plot after buying firearms, including AK-47 rifles, from an undercover FBI agent following their arrest in October 2024; the son received a 15-year prison sentence, while Tawhedi awaits sentencing. Zada, a permanent resident who had been living in Fort Worth, Texas, is now permanently barred from returning to the US, following a removal order issued by the court on 20 August. The family had reportedly sold possessions and bought one-way tickets to Kabul in preparation for the attack. Zada's attorneys said her consent to removal was not an endorsement of the court's legitimacy and predicted it would eventually be ruled unconstitutional.