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July 29, 2026 / 11:24 PM EDT
/ CBS News
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The Justice Department is seeking to convince a federal judge to deport a Texas-based Afghan woman who prosecutors allege is an "alien terrorist," it revealed Wednesday, in the first-ever test case before a secretive court that has never convened since it was created three decades ago.Nazira Haji Zada, 47, of Fort Worth, Texas, will appear Thursday morning in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court in Washington, D.C., where a judge will hear evidence from the Justice Department over whether she should be removed from the United States, according to the Justice Department and court filings. The government is accusing her of links to a foiled Islamic State-inspired terrorist plot to carry out a mass shooting on Election Day in 2024."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," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.Zada has never been publicly charged by the government with any crimes of terrorism, and has no known criminal history, according to the government.Last year, her son Abdullah Haji Zada and son-in-law Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi each pleaded guilty in a federal court in Oklahoma to purchasing two AK-47 style rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI agent as part of an alleged plot targeting the 2024 election in support of the Islamic State.At the time of his arrest in 2024, Zada's son was only 17. He was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to gun crimes when he was 18. Tawhedi pleaded guilty to terrorism and gun offenses.In an unclassified FBI summary filed in the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, the government alleged that Zada "supported" her son and son-in-law's conspiracy. The FBI also alleged she "pledged loyalty to ISIS" and "worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology," citing information from a "reliable source."
