Afghan woman deported after first-ever Alien Terrorist Removal Court case
Nazira Haji Zada, whose case was the first ever heard by the long-dormant Alien Terrorist Removal Court, has been deported after waiving her rights, the Justice Department said.
An Afghan woman whose case became the first ever to be heard by a little-used US tribunal has been deported, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Nazira Haji Zada was arrested at her home in Fort Worth, Texas, in July and brought before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court on a Justice Department application seeking her removal from the United States. The department said she had waived her rights to contest her detention and agreed to be deported.
Officials did not immediately say when or to where she was sent.
The resolution was swift, heading off what had threatened to become a drawn-out legal battle over the reach of the court's authority and the strength of the allegations against her.
Established in 1996, the Alien Terrorist Removal Court had not received a single petition until Haji Zada's case in July. It holds a specific mandate to handle deportation proceedings for people the Justice Department designates as "alien terrorists." The panel is made up of five federal judges drawn from different districts across the country, all appointed by the US chief justice.
The Justice Department has described Haji Zada as a supporter of the Islamic State and, at the time of her case, identified her as the mother and mother-in-law of two Afghan men convicted in Oklahoma of plotting an attack in the United States on Election Day in 2024. Those plans were thwarted before any attack could be carried out.
At the time of her deportation, her lawyers had been pressing the court to compel the Justice Department to turn over information and other evidence backing the allegations against her.