The Alien Terrorist Removal Court began hearing its first-ever case on July 30 after the Trump administration activated the obscure federal court earlier this month.
In 1996, Congress created the court, which is permitted to rely on classified evidence in deportation cases, according to the court’s website. Five U.S. district judges are authorized to review applications to remove alleged noncitizen terrorists from the United States.
The court aims “to remove from the United States alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Nazira Haji Zada, an Afghan national and lawful permanent resident of the United States, who was arrested at her Texas home on July 28, is a backer of ISIS, an Islamic terrorist group. Haji Zada denies any wrongdoing and is not charged with any crimes.
The government alleges Haji Zada is an ISIS supporter who made her children pledge their loyalty to the terrorist group. The government says she supported and helped to conceal a plot by her relatives to execute a failed Election Day 2024 mass shooting attack in the United States. The site of the planned attack was not disclosed.
Blanche said 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.”
Prosecutors say much of the government’s evidence may not be disclosed publicly. Her attorneys counter that the use of classified evidence against her violates due process protections.
“This entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,” her court-appointed federal public defender, Matthew Farley, said in open court in Washington. Haji Zada was present for the hearing.
Farley asked the court to dismiss the case and free his client from custody.
U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, a Minnesota-based jurist who oversees the court, denied the motion.
An unclassified DOJ summary of the case says Haji Zada indoctrinated her children “with ISIS ideology” and hid the radicalization of her family and an intended move to ISIS territory from her husband.
“The underlying information is classified because disclosure would enable terrorists and terrorist organizations to avoid preventative or detection measures or would reveal FBI or other U.S. Intelligence Community sources,” according to an FBI memo dated July 15.
Haji Zada’s son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were previously arrested and convicted for their role in the plot, the DOJ said in a statement.
The two men were arrested in October 2024 after buying firearms and ammunition for the attack from an undercover FBI employee.
The son pled guilty and received 15 years in prison and agreed to be deported after the sentence was completed. The son-in-law entered guilty pleas in June 2025 and is awaiting sentencing.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Tawhedi’s case, the family started selling their property—including two vehicles, furniture, computers, and a mobile phone—in 2024 to generate funds to pay for the attack.
Haji Zada entered into a contract to sell the family’s home. The family also bought one-way airfare for some of the family members to fly to Kabul, Afghanistan, shortly before the foiled mass shooting was to take place.
It is unclear when the next hearing in the case will take place.
