Afghan national becomes first to be removed from US under special 'alien terrorist' court
An Afghan national living in Texas became the first “alien terrorist” removed from the United States under a long-dormant special court established under President Bill Clinton.
Federal prosecutors say Nazira Haji Zada, 47, a former Fort Worth resident, supported a plot to commit what the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) called an “Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)-inspired mass shooting” on Election Day 2024.
Zada’s son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were previously arrested and convicted for the same plot, prosecutors said. The two Afghan nationals were arrested in October 2024 after buying firearms and ammunition intended for an Election Day terrorist attack from an undercover FBI employee, according to prosecutors.
Abdullah, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty as an adult and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. As part of the plea deal, he agreed to a judicial order removing him from the United States to Afghanistan after his prison term, according to the DOJ.
Last June, 28-year-old Tawhedi pleaded guilty to two terrorism-related offenses involving providing material support to, and receiving firearms and ammunition from, ISIS. He currently awaits sentencing.
According to court documents, Tawhedi admitted that between June and October 2024, he conspired with “at least one other individual” to buy AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition, and 10 magazines in order to “carry out a mass-casualty event” on or around the time of the 2024 election.
Prosecutors say Tawhedi “communicated with an ISIS facilitator” about the plot and asked whether 500 rounds of ammunition “would be sufficient.”
To raise funds for the attack, a criminal complaint says Tawhedi began selling off property, including furniture, computers, and the family’s two vehicles. The family also signed a contract to sell their home and bought one-way tickets to Kabul just days before Election Day for Zada and other minors, “but not Abdullah and Tawhedi.”
Zada’s case is being called the first-ever case before the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC), a specialized federal court established by Congress in 1996 with “jurisdiction to swiftly remove alien terrorists from the United States when the government establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that an alien is a terrorist,” according to the ATRC website.
Attorney General Todd Blanche certified the Aug. 20 application to remove Zada, who first appeared in court on July 30. Zada is now “permanently inadmissible to the United States,” prosecutors said.
“This landmark case, resulting in the prompt removal of this alien terrorist to her country of origin, is a win for national security and the rule of law,” Blanche said in a statement. “Those who support and condone terrorism should not be living in the United States, and this first-ever case before the ATRC shows how the Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country.”
The Trump administration says it is the first to bring a case before the ATRC, which Congress established in 1996 under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA).
In a July statement, ATRC Chief Judge Joan Ericksen denied that the ATRC is a “secret court,” adding that while classified information submitted to the court cannot be made public, the “existence, makeup, and procedures of the court are public.”
It’s not yet clear whether the ATRC’s first ruling will face a legal challenge. Duke legal scholar John Dorsett Niles wrote in a 2008 paper that the ATRC could theoretically satisfy due process.
“In practice, however, the ATRC has never been used,” Niles wrote. “Perhaps to avoid an adverse constitutional ruling, the attorney general has never brought a deportation proceeding before the court.”
