The Trump administration is bringing the first-ever case before a little-known national security court created nearly three decades ago, seeking to deport an Afghan woman with a green card who the Justice Department alleges supported an Islamic State-linked terrorist plot.
Nazira Haji Zada, 47, of Fort Worth, Texas, appeared Thursday before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court in Washington, D.C. The hearing marked the first public proceeding in the court’s history after Congress created the specialized tribunal in 1996 but never used it until now.
The allegations in this case show the matriarch of an ISIS-sympathizing family aiding in a plot to launch a mass casualty attack on American voters on Election Day, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court three decades ago to remove from the United States alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place.
According to an unclassified FBI summary filed with the court, investigators allege Haji Zada supported ISIS, pledged allegiance to the terrorist group, and helped radicalize members of her family. The FBI alleged she supported a conspiracy involving her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, and worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology.
The removal case stems from a broader FBI terrorism investigation that led to the arrests of Abdullah Haji Zada and Tawhedi in October 2024 after they allegedly purchased two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI agent as part of a planned Election Day attack in support of ISIS.
Abdullah Haji Zada, who was 17 when arrested but later pleaded guilty as an adult, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and agreed to be deported to Afghanistan after serving his sentence. Tawhedi pleaded guilty in June 2025 to attempting to provide material support to ISIS and related firearms offenses.
Court filings allege the pair also planned to relocate female relatives and juvenile family members, including Haji Zada, to ISIS-controlled territory in Afghanistan. Haji Zada has never been charged with a terrorism offense and has no known criminal history.
Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 for cases where the government says classified national security information is necessary to prove a noncitizen should be deported. Unlike traditional immigration proceedings, the court allows judges to review classified evidence in closed proceedings.
The five-judge tribunal, whose members are appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, is modeled after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Court records show Blanche approved the application on June 30, and prosecutors filed the first case on July 15.
Haji Zada became a permanent resident in 2018 after her husband, who worked at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in support of U.S. forces, received a green card through a program for Afghan allies. Thursday’s hearing set a precedent for how the government uses the tribunal to pursue terrorism-related deportation cases.
Source: Washington Examiner | Associated Press
Author: Pulse Of Nations Wire Desk
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