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A supporter of an ISIS-inspired mass shooting plot has been removed from the United States through the first-ever use of a “zombie court” by the Trump Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ filed its first-ever application for a removal order before the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court (ATRC) in July targeting 47-year-old Afghan national Nazira Haji Zada, who conceded to supporting a plot by her sons to conduct an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day 2024. The ATRC issued an order of removal on Aug. 20 that was unsealed Friday. Zada has since been removed to her country of origin. She is now permanently inadmissible to the U.S., according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
This was the first use of the ATRC in its nearly 30-year history. Congress established the court to allow the government to deport noncitizens suspected of terrorism through a specialized judicial process that relies on classified evidence. Despite being established decades ago, the ATRC has remained dormant since its creation, leading legal scholars to refer to it as a “zombie” court.
The Trump administration’s successful invocation of the court revives what looks to be a powerful new tool for removing suspected terrorists from the country.
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In this April 5, 2019, photo, President Donald Trump participates in a roundtable on immigration and border security at the U.S. Border Patrol Calexico Station in Calexico, Calif. Trump said Friday he is considering sending “Illegal Immigrants” to Democratic strongholds to punish them for inaction — just hours after White House and Homeland Security officials insisted the idea was dead on arrival. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The move comes months after Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C., pointed to the long-dormant Alien Terrorist Removal Court as an alternative for handling terrorism-related deportation cases while questioning the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act. Attorney General Todd Blanche filed the first-ever application for a removal order with the ARTC on July 15. ATRC Chief Judge Joan Ericksen, appointed by President George W. Bush, presided over Zada’s hearing and later signed the removal order.
According to the DOJ, the government used classified information, as authorized under the ATRC statute, to establish that Zada is an alien terrorist. The DOJ said that the government provided Zada and her lawyers, who were two federal public defenders, with approximately half a terabyte of documents supporting the government’s case. With her lawyers, Zada, a former resident of Fort Worth, Texas, conceded to supporting a plot to commit an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024 for which her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, were previously arrested and convicted.
The DOJ said that according to the criminal complaint, Zada and her family started selling off their property in 2024, including furniture, computers, a mobile phone, and the family’s two vehicles to raise funds for the attack. Court documents reveal that Tawhedi admitted that between June and October 2024, he conspired with at least one other individual to purchase two AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition, and 10 magazines, with the intent to carry out a mass-casualty attack on behalf of ISIS on or around Nov. 5, 2024.
Zada signed a contract to sell the family house and the family also purchased one-way airfare for travel to Kabul, Afghanistan shortly before Election Day 2024 for its members, including for Zada and other children, excluding Abdullah and Tawhedi.
Blanche called the DOJ’s successful invocation of the ARTC a “landmark case resulting in the prompt removal of this alien terrorist to her country of origin.” He called the case “a win for national security and the rule of law.”
“Those who support and condone terrorism should not be living in the United States, and this first-ever case before the ATRC shows how the Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country,” said Blanche.
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Federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building. According to White House border czar Tom Homan, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will increase its operations in New York City due to its status as a sanctuary city. (Photo by Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Likewise, FBI Director Kash Patel called the case “a historic and vitally important step in our work to protect the U.S. homeland from terrorism.”
“An individual who supported a plot by ISIS-sympathizing family members to commit an attack in America has paid the price for that. She came to our country, betrayed it, and has now lost the right to live here and enjoy our democratic freedoms,” said Patel, adding, “This FBI and our Justice Department partners will protect the American people from the threat of terrorism, using all means necessary.”
Meanwhile, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said “from the moment President Trump took office, he made clear that his Administration would put the safety and security of the American people first.”
Mullin said that the use of the ARTC to remove Zada came at “the president’s direction.” He reiterated that “those who plot acts of terrorism against the United States have no place in our country. We will find them, and we will use every lawful tool available to remove them.”
Prior to Zada’s removal, a DOJ spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital that “this Department of Justice will use every tool available to bring alien terrorists to justice and remove them from the United States, including by use of this court established by Congress in 1996.”
This comes after Boasberg made the comments while presiding over litigation challenging the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He temporarily blocked the administration from using the wartime law for those removals while the courts determine whether Trump’s use of the statute is lawful. Boasberg also ordered deportation flights already in the air to return, setting off a high-profile legal battle between the administration and the judiciary.
During a March hearing, Boasberg remarked that “Congress has an answer for us, doesn’t it? Because they created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court.”
He said that “if there’s a national security concern with having these hearings, whether via habeas or otherwise, you can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?”
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, told Fox News Digital it was about time the Justice Department took advantage of the special court.
“I think it is a sign of negligence, frankly, of prior presidents that they did not use this special court, this special procedure that was specifically set up by Congress, so that they could quickly get aliens — aliens who were either terrorists or supported terrorist activities — out of the U.S.” von Spakovsky said.
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The court rejected a misconduct accusation against Judge James Boasberg. (Associated Press)
Congress created the ATRC through the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
“From now on we can quickly expel foreigners who dare to come to America and support terrorist activities,” Clinton said at the bill’s signing.
The court is made up of five federal district judges who serve five-year terms. It handles terrorism-related deportation cases where the government says its evidence cannot be made public because it would threaten national security. In those cases, the government provides the respondent with an unclassified summary instead of the classified evidence itself.
At the time of the law’s passage, then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden blasted the law.
“You and me, Judge — me, the prosecutor; you, the judge — let’s deport him in a secret hearing, using secret evidence,” Biden said. “We know you did it, and we can’t tell you how we know. Now I think that is about as un-American as it gets.”
According to the 9/11 Commission staff report, DOJ attorneys considered 50 cases by 1998 and another 50 over the next two years, but every one was rejected. Some terrorism-related cases moved forward through the regular immigration court system instead.
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The Justice Department’s case before the ATRC comes as the Trump administration has repeatedly faced resistance from federal judges, who have blocked, delayed or narrowed key parts of its immigration enforcement agenda.
Von Spakovsky said the Justice Department’s use of the ATRC could not only streamline terrorism-related deportation cases but also reduce interference from what he described as “rogue” liberal judges.
“I think this court is a much stronger tool the Justice Department can use, and it’s going to make it much tougher for what I consider to be rogue judges to interfere with, and hopefully prevent, the removal of immigrants,” von Spakovsky said.
