FILE – President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, July 16, 2026, in Washington (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP, File).
A first-ever event in U.S. legal and national security history occurred on Thursday as the Trump administration took an Afghan immigrant to task — and to court — over her alleged support for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group commonly known as "ISIS," or "Daesh" in the Arabic-speaking world.
Nazira Haji Zada, 47, a resident of Fort Worth, Texas, stands accused of supporting her family's efforts "to commit an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024," according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The underlying conspiracy, thwarted by law enforcement, resulted in the arrest of Zada's son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, in October 2024. The younger Zada and Tawhedi later pleaded guilty to firearms and terrorism offenses, respectively.
Now, the DOJ has activated a novel — at least in application — kind of tribunal to try to remove Zada herself from the country without bringing what might be considered typical federal charges against her.
In 1996, Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATCR) as a body with special jurisdiction to review and assess deportation cases against accused noncitizen terrorists residing in the country.
The court is made up of five U.S. District Court judges hand-selected by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who serve "staggered, renewable five-year terms and must be drawn from different judicial circuits," according to the Federal Judicial Center (FJC).
Despite predating the 9/11 attacks and the concomitant global war on terror by several years, the court has never before been used. The Trump administration made note of its intent to activate the court on July 15, but kept the details under wraps until this week.
An FBI ATCA application was declassified on July 30 and revealed the outlines of the case against the woman the DOJ's accompanying press release refers to as "the matriarch of an alien Afghan family."
"The FBI has developed information that Nazira is a supporter of ISIS, has formally pledged loyalty to ISIS, and supported Tawhedi and Abdullah's conspiracy," the filing reads. "The FBI is further aware that Nazira, in collaboration with Tawhedi, worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology and have them pledge loyalty to ISIS."
To hear the government tell it, the trio were plotting to have several family members moved "to ISIS controlled territory in Afghanistan" while the Election Day mass shooting occurred — and they planned to claim the would-be attack as a victory for ISIS.
"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 application continues. "This information was obtained from a reliable source who has provided reliable information in the past, and whose reporting has repeatedly been corroborated."
Under the court's authorizing statute, the application used against an ATCA respondent is first drafted by the U.S. Attorney General and submitted to the removal court under seal.
"A single judge may grant the application upon a finding that the alien in question has been identified correctly as an alien terrorist present in the United States and that removal under other available legal means would pose a risk to national security," the FJC explains. "Upon granting a removal application, the court must hold a public removal hearing at which the accused has the right to be represented by counsel and the government bears the burden of proving that the accused is an alien terrorist."
According to a criminal complaint, the family started selling off property — including furniture, computers, a cellphone, and two vehicles — in order to finance the foiled Election Day attack. The FBI alleges the woman even signed a contract to sell the family's house.
"The ATRC embodies the recognition that the government should not have to choose between allowing a dangerous alien to remain in the United States and disclosing sensitive classified information in a traditional removal proceeding," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement. "We will use all the tools at our disposal, including this court, to remove foreign nationals who betray our values and exploit our goodwill by supporting ISIS and terrorist plots."