Alien Terrorist Removal Court deports legal US resident to Afghanistan in first-ever case

For the first time, the Justice Department brought a case before a decades-old but until now unused special court to deport a legal US resident to Afghanistan after she conceded to being an "alien terrorist," court records show. Prosecutors alleged Nazira Haji Zada, 47, originally from Afghanistan, supported a plan by her son and son-in-law to commit an Islamic State-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024, according to court documents. Both men have already been charged and will be deported following their release from prison.

Haji Zada's son, Abdullah Haji Zada, 19, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Haji Zada was arrested in July at her home in Fort Worth, Texas, and had an initial hearing in late July. Instead of charging Haji Zada in the criminal justice system, leaders at the Justice Department launched the first-ever civil proceedings at the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

The secretive court allows for a lower standard of proof to remove a person from American soil. Congress created the court in 1996 to make it easier for the DOJ to use classified evidence, that they say poses a risk to national security, to deport people. In unsealed court filings dated Aug. 20, Haji Zada waived her rights to challenge the detention and agreed to the deportation.

District Judge Joan Ericksen ordered her removal the same day. Haji Zada's admission will not be used in criminal proceedings, and the documents were released to the public on Friday. Haji Zada's court appointed attorneys, Matthew Farley and Mary Manning Petras, contested the constitutionality of the case in court filings, adding that they weren't permitted to review evidence.

The evidence supporting the removal remains classified, the government said in court documents, because it poses a risk to national security. Haji Zada's attorneys said in a statement that their client's choice to consent to the removal "should not be seen as an endorsement of this court's legitimacy." "Dragging lawful permanent residents into court but refusing to show them or their attorneys the evidence that will be used against them is a plain violation of due process," the statement said. "We are confident that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court will be struck down as unconstitutional as soon as a judge is asked to address the issue." Haji Zada came to the U.S. as a lawful permanent resident in 2018.

Her husband was employed at the Bagram Air Base, the last major U.S. base in Afghanistan until it was turned over to Afghan forces in 2021, from 2009 to 2016. As the family "matriarch," U.S. authorities alleged Haji Zada worked to "radicalize" her family and "formally pledged loyalty to ISIS." The government also alleged she and her son-in-law "worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology and have them pledge loyalty to ISIS." Prosecutors also said the family allegedly raised funds for the terrorist attack by selling off furniture, computers, a mobile phone, and two vehicles. They added that Haji Zada signed a contract to sell the family's home, and along with other female family members and young male family members, planned to move to an ISIS-controlled location before the attack, which she hid from her "unsuspecting husband." Her son and son-in-law would remain behind to commit the terrorist attack, court documents show.