An Afghan woman accused of helping conceal her family’s plot to carry out an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day 2024 has been deported after conceding she is an “alien terrorist,” in the first case the Justice Department has ever brought before the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court. Nazira Haji Zada, 47, was removed from the country this week after the government argued her case in the once-unused court, created decades ago specifically to handle deportations built on classified national security evidence.
What was the actual plot?
Between June and October 2024, prosecutors say Haji Zada’s son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, conspired to buy two AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition, and 10 magazines to carry out a mass-casualty attack timed around Election Day, November 5, 2024, on behalf of ISIS. Both men pleaded guilty to purchasing the weapons; Abdullah Haji Zada was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The plot never reached the point of an actual attack — it was disrupted before Election Day.
What did Nazira Haji Zada actually do?
The Justice Department didn’t charge her criminally for the plot itself. Instead, it alleged she indoctrinated her children with ISIS ideology and concealed her family’s radicalization and their planned move to ISIS-held territory from her own husband. Rather than pursue a criminal case, the government took the unusual step of filing for her removal through the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, arguing the evidence against her relied on classified material better suited to that specialized venue than an open criminal trial.
Why has this court never been used before?
Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court in 1996, giving the government a venue to deport non-citizens tied to terrorism using classified evidence without exposing intelligence sources and methods in a normal immigration or criminal courtroom. For nearly three decades, no administration actually used it — the government generally found it easier to build criminal cases or use standard immigration proceedings instead. Haji Zada’s case marks the first time the court has ever been invoked, and the Justice Department has framed the outcome as a template for handling similar cases in the future rather than a one-off.
Haji Zada conceded during the proceeding that she is an “alien terrorist,” a concession that let the case resolve without a full contested hearing on the classified evidence. She has since been removed to Afghanistan.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs · CBS News · The Washington Post · Al Jazeera
