A press release that was recently published for the public has revealed that the Justice Department is looking to deport an Afghan alien after filing the first-ever case in a decades-old Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC). Congress first created the ATRC back in 1996. It was part of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, a piece of legislation created to combat international terrorism.
The court had essentially been dormant prior to the filing earlier this month by the DOJ. The ATRC was established to provide the government with the ability to deport terrorist aliens quickly without needing to disclose classified information to the public. The suspect, Nazira Haji Zada, 47, is the matriarch of an Afghan family that took up residence in Fort Worth, Texas, and allegedly participated in schemes to help carry out a mass shooting event on Election Day in 2024.
The woman’s son, Abdullah Haji Zada, along with her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, have prior convictions for their roles in an ISIS-inspired terrorist plot, the press release revealed. Nazira Haji Zada was taken into police custody in late July 2026 and was brought before ATRC’s Chief Judge Joan N. Ericksen in Washington, D.C.
According to a report from The Daily Caller, Ericksen ordered the government’s application to the ATRC be accepted, saying there was “probable cause to believe that the Respondent has been correctly identified and is an alien terrorist present in the United States.” When the woman’s attorney requested the case be dismissed, Ericksen rejected it.
“Congress 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,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated in the press release. “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.
“The Department’s application in this court makes clear that terrorists have no place in the United States of America,” he continued. Tawhedi and Abdullah Haji Zada were both arrested in October 2024 for buying guns and ammunition to carry out the attack, after they attempted to make the purchase from an undercover FBI agent. Abdullah Haji Zada, 17, pleaded guilty to the charges against him and received a 15 year prison sentence.
Tawhedi also pleaded guilty in July 2025 to two terrorism-related crimes, including conspiring to provide resources to ISIS. He confessed to trying to purchase two AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition and 10 magazines for the mass shooting attack. Tawhedi allegedly asked an ISIS facilitator if 500 rounds would be enough for the assault.
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The family funded the attack by selling their furniture, computers, a mobile phone, and both of their vehicles in 2024. Nazira Haji Zada signed a contract to sell their home as well. The family purchased one-way plane tickets that would have been used to fly to Afghanistan with the children just before the attack took place. Ericksen’s order stating that litigation was at an “early state of the multi-phase process” before stating fighting terrorism is “an urgent objective of the highest order.”
“[W]hile Supreme Court precedents ‘make clear that concerns of national security and foreign relations do not warrant abdication of the judicial role,’ nevertheless, when it comes to drawing factual inferences in this area, ‘respect for the Government’s conclusions is appropriate,’” Erickson said in the order. The ATRC is made up of five judges, all of whom are appointed by the chief justice to serve five-year terms.
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