Justice Dept. Uses Rare Alien Terrorist Removal Court to Seek Deportation of Fort Worth Resident

The Justice Department has opened the first-ever case in the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court, invoking a little-used national security deportation process to seek the removal of a Fort Worth, Texas, lawful permanent resident accused of supporting her family’s ISIS-inspired Election Day 2024 attack plot.

In a July 30 announcement, the department said it had filed an application to remove Nazira Haji Zada, 47, an Afghan national identified in public court records as a lawful permanent resident. The case is nationally significant because it marks the first use of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a special court Congress created in 1996 for deportation cases in which the government says ordinary immigration proceedings could expose classified national security evidence.

The court’s docket shows the application was filed July 15 under case 2026-TRC-1. Public filings show the government submitted both classified evidence and an unclassified summary, with much of the record remaining sealed. The statute allows the government to present classified material to the court in camera and ex parte — meaning privately and without the respondent present — while providing the respondent an unclassified summary of the allegations.

The court moved quickly. It held an ex parte, in-camera hearing on July 16 and asked the government to supplement the record. The government did so on July 22. On July 27, Chief Judge Joan N. Ericksen found probable cause and granted the application, writing: “ORDERED that the Government’s application is GRANTED.” The order also noted that the court “was relegated to obscurity for about thirty years, however, because the Government never filed such an application.”

An initial status hearing was set for 11 a.m. July 30 in Washington, and the court directed the attorney general to cause Haji Zada to appear upon her arrest.

The court’s order is not a criminal conviction, and the case is a civil immigration removal proceeding, not a criminal prosecution of Haji Zada.

In the unclassified FBI and Justice Department summary filed with the court, the government alleges Haji Zada is “a supporter of ISIS,” has “formally pledged loyalty to ISIS,” helped radicalize family members, helped conceal pro-ISIS teaching, and supported plans for the family to relocate to ISIS-controlled territory.

According to that summary, the FBI became aware of Haji Zada in August 2024 while investigating two relatives: her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi.

Those earlier cases were brought in federal court in Oklahoma and are separate from the new removal action. According to the Justice Department and prior court materials, Abdullah Haji Zada and Tawhedi were accused of conspiring to carry out an ISIS-inspired mass-casualty attack on or around Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024.

The department said the two men were arrested Oct. 7, 2024, after purchasing two AK-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI employee.

DOJ said Abdullah Haji Zada, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with a judicial order of removal to Afghanistan after he completes his sentence. Tawhedi pleaded guilty on June 13, 2025, to terrorism-related charges including attempting and conspiring to provide material support to ISIS, as well as firearms offenses, and was awaiting sentencing as of Thursday’s announcement.

The ATRC proceeding against Nazira Haji Zada does not resolve those criminal matters and does not itself determine criminal guilt. Instead, it begins a specialized removal process designed for cases involving classified evidence. Much of the evidentiary record in her case remains sealed, with the public account limited largely to the government’s unclassified summary and the court’s brief orders.