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

FILE - The U.S. Department of Justice logo is seen on a podium before a news conference, May 4, 2026, in Washington. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP hide caption

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. Senior U.S. 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."