{"id":3421,"date":"2026-07-30T18:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3421"},"modified":"2026-07-30T18:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T18:41:00","slug":"doj-holds-first-ever-hearing-of-alien-terrorist-removal-court-created-in-1996","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3421","title":{"rendered":"DOJ holds first-ever hearing of \u2018Alien Terrorist Removal Court,\u2019 created in 1996"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 A 47-year-old Texas mom whose son and son-in-law were convicted of conspiring to launch an ISIS-inspired attack made history Thursday by becoming the first person to appear before a court created by Congress in 1996 to speed up the deportation of \u201calien terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more States push DHS to explain its noncitizen voter claims<\/a><\/p>\n

Nazira Haji Zada, who has not been charged with a crime, appeared in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court before Chief Judge Joan Ericksen, who normally serves as a federal judge in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

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Under the framework of the court, the U.S. can attempt to remove noncitizens from the country upon representing them as an alien terrorist under a lower standard than would be required to convict them of a criminal charge. Appeals from that court would be made to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.<\/p>\n

Nazira, who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, had been arrested earlier this week. She was described by the Justice Department as \u201cthe matriarch of an alien Afghan family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DOJ filed an application on July 15 to have her removed from the U.S. for her alleged role in a plot to disrupt Election Day in 2024 with a mass shooting.<\/p>\n

Nazira was flanked by her lawyers Matthew Farley and Mary Petras of the federal public defender\u2019s office and two translators when she arrived in a federal courtroom in D.C.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThe United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court is now in session,\u201d the clerk announced.<\/p>\n

Ericksen, a George W. Bush appointee, quickly noted that Nazira was a lawful permanent resident of the United States and the \u201cfirst case\u201d to appear before a court that \u201chad laid dormant for three decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a criminal matter. This is a civil matter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Farley immediately attacked the DOJ\u2019s attempt to deport Nazira as unconstitutional. \u201cThis entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He called the process a violation of Nazira\u2019s rights under the \u201cFirst, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth\u201d Amendments, and said the approach was a \u201crun-around of bringing a criminal case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farley also said he\u2019s been reading up on the literature around the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, which lays out some of the reasons why it hasn\u2019t been used in the past.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve probably read the same law review articles you have,\u201d Ericksen said, joking that there weren\u2019t very many of them.<\/p>\n

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hayden O\u2019Byrne laid out the government\u2019s allegations against Nazira and said that her \u201cunsuspecting husband\u201d had no knowledge of the alleged plot.<\/p>\n

The government has said in a filing that before emigrating to the U.S., Nazira\u2019s husband \u201cwas employed at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ericksen denied the motion by Nazira\u2019s lawyer for immediate release but said she\u2019d take up the challenges to the proceedings in future hearings.<\/p>\n

Read more Apalachee High School shooter\u2019s father sentenced to 15 years<\/a><\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration\u2019s attempt to send Nazira back to Afghanistan by using the ATRC will hold up to constitutional challenges.<\/p>\n

Legal scholar John Dorsett Niles wrote in 2008 that in theory it could be considered due process.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cIn practice, however, the ATRC has never been used,\u201d Niles wrote. \u201cPerhaps to avoid an adverse constitutional ruling, the attorney general has never brought a deportation proceeding before the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the hearing at the federal courthouse in Washington, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the use of the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court three decades ago to remove from the United States alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place,\u201d Blanche said in a statement. \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if more cases like Nazira\u2019s could wind up being heard in the ATRC, a Justice Department spokesperson said only: \u201cThis Department of Justice will use every tool available to bring alien terrorists to justice and remove them from the United States, including this court established by Congress in 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nazira landed on the government\u2019s radar after her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were arrested on Oct. 7, 2024, by authorities in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Tawhedi had acquired two AK-47-style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition to target large crowds, the DOJ said. And Tawhedi had conspired with multiple people, including his brother-in-law, Abdullah Haji Zada, for several months to plot out the attack.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Nazira\u2019s son, who was 17 at the time, was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty in April 2024.<\/p>\n

Tawhedi, now 28, pleaded guilty to two offenses: conspiring and providing support to the Islamic State group, and attempting to receive firearms to commit a federal crime of terrorism.<\/p>\n

But they weren\u2019t the only members of the family who were part of the plot, justice officials argued.<\/p>\n

Nazira signed a contract to sell their home and bought \u201cone-way airfare\u201d for her to fly with her remaining children to Kabul, Afghanistan, before the alleged Election Day plot was to be carried out, the government said.<\/p>\n

And, according to the DOJ, Nazira had her children pledge their loyalty to the the Islamic State group and \u201csupported\u201d the plot.<\/p>\n

Read more Tomi Adeyemi says she left set of film adaption of her \u2018Children of Blood and Bone\u2019 in tears, is being \u2018antagonized\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOJ holds first-ever hearing of \u2018Alien Terrorist Removal Court,\u2019 created in 1996<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justice-department"],"yoast_head":"\nDOJ holds first-ever hearing of \u2018Alien Terrorist Removal Court,\u2019 created in 1996 - Trusted Moving Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trustedmovinggroups.com\/?p=3421\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOJ holds first-ever hearing of \u2018Alien Terrorist Removal Court,\u2019 created in 1996 - 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