The Trump administration has activated a federal court that sat dormant for 30 years, filing the first-ever case in the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court to deport an Afghan woman accused of helping plan a mass shooting on Election Day 2024.
Nazira Haji Zada, 47, faces removal proceedings in the specialized tribunal after prosecutors say she supported an ISIS-inspired plot to murder American voters. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, allegedly planned to use AK-47-style rifles in coordinated mass shootings during last November’s presidential election.
The Justice Department says Haji Zada did not just stand by. She pledged her own loyalty to the Islamic State, helped radicalize family members, and sold off property to help fund the attack, according to court filings.
“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. He added that Haji Zada “never should have been here in the first place.”
Congress established the Alien Terrorist Removal Court in 1996 specifically to handle cases where the government holds classified intelligence that cannot be disclosed to the target of deportation proceedings without compromising national security sources and methods. Until Monday, no administration had ever used it.
U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, serving as chief judge of the ATRC, issued an order Monday finding probable cause to allow the case to proceed in the terrorism court. She ruled that relying on the regular immigration process “would pose a risk to the United States’ national security.”
