Trump administration launches first case before dormant ‘Alien Terrorist’ court

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 involving her son and son-in-law.Nazira Haji Zada, 47 of Fort Worth, Texas, is scheduled to appear on Thursday before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court in Washington, D.C. The hearing will mark the first public proceeding in the court’s history after Congress created the specialized tribunal in 1996 but never used it.“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” based on information from what it described as a reliable source.“Nazira worked with Tawhedi to radicalize the family and to conceal their pro-ISIS teaching and planned family relocation to ISIS-controlled territory from her unsuspecting husband,” the FBI wrote in an unclassified summary filed in the removal court.Haji Zada has never been charged with a terrorism offense and has no known criminal history.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 he was 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 last year 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.Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court as part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 for cases in which 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, while providing the respondent only an unclassified summary of the allegations.The five-judge tribunal, whose members are appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, is modeled after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Before a public hearing can occur, the attorney general must certify the government’s application, and a judge must find probable cause that the respondent qualifies as an “alien terrorist” under federal law.Court records show Blanche approved the application on June 30, and prosecutors filed the first case in the court’s history on July 15. Chief Judge Joan Ericksen, a federal judge from Minnesota, initially ordered the DOJ to supplement its legal arguments before later finding probable cause to allow the case to proceed.BERLIN’S ‘QUEER COMMISSIONER’ CONDEMNS ISLAMIC ATTACK ON PRIDE PARADE AS ‘CONSERVATIVE’ VIOLENCEHaji 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 will mark the first public test of a tribunal that existed only on paper for nearly 30 years and could set a precedent for how the government uses the court to pursue future terrorism-related deportation cases.