First Use of Alien Terrorist Removal Court Targets Woman Accused in Family’s ISIS Election Day Plot
30th July 2026
An Afghan woman living in Texas, whose son and son-in-law were convicted of plotting an Election Day mass killing in 2024, had a public removal hearing Thursday, the first case before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.
The Justice Department says Nazira Haji Zada, 47, of Fort Worth, Texas, is being removed for her role in a plot involving her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi. The pair were arrested in October 2024 after buying guns and ammunition from an undercover FBI employee that were to be used in an Election Day attack. The Justice Department asserts the planned shooting was inspired by the terrorist group ISIS. Zada, a legal permanent resident, is challenging the constitutionality of her deportation order.
The case marks the first public session of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a specialized federal court that Congress established in 1996. The court has jurisdiction to remove foreign terrorists from the United States when the government establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that an alien is a terrorist. The secretive court allows the government to produce classified information to use in prosecution.