{"id":433295,"date":"2026-09-11T23:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T23:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433295\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T23:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T23:14:15","slug":"fort-worth-woman-deported-after-accused-ties-to-islamic-state-case-was-first-for-long-dormant-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/433295\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth woman deported after accused ties to Islamic State, case was first for long-dormant court"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Afghan woman who was accused of supporting an Islamic State-inspired plot in the United States and whose case was the first for an\u00a0obscure and long-dormant court<\/a>\u00a0has been deported, the Justice Department said Friday. <\/p>\n

Nazira Haji Zada, 47, was arrested in July at her Fort Worth, Texas, home and brought before\u00a0the Alien Terrorist Removal Court<\/a>\u00a0on a Justice Department application to deport her from the U.S. On Friday, the department said that she had waived her rights to challenge her detention and had agreed to be deported to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Haji Zada\u2019s attorneys said her decision to consent to removal \u201cshould not be seen as an endorsement of this court\u2019s legitimacy. \u201cDragging lawful permanent residents into court but refusing to show them or their attorneys the evidence that will be used against them is a plain violation of due process,\u201d the defense lawyers said in a statement Friday. \u201cWe are confident that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court will be struck down as unconstitutional as soon as a judge is asked to address the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Court filings<\/a>\u00a0about Haji Zada\u2019s deportation, including a judge\u2019s\u00a0Aug. 20 removal order<\/a>, remained under seal until after she reached her destination.The swift resolution averts what could have been a protracted legal fight testing the authority of the court, which was established in 1996 but until July had not received any petitions, as well as the strength of allegations against Haji Zada.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case\u2019s outcome is \u201ca win for national security and the rule of law. \u201cThose who support and condone terrorism should not be living in the United States, and this first-ever case before the (court) shows how the Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country,\u201d Blanche said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department has described Haji Zada as a supporter of the Islamic State and identified her at the time as the mother and mother-in-law of two Afghan men who were convicted in Oklahoma of plotting an attack in the U.S. on Election Day in 2024. The plans were foiled before any attack took place.<\/p>\n

Her lawyers at the time of the deportation had been pressing the court to force the Justice Department to share information and other evidence to support the allegations in the case.<\/p>\n

The court has specific authority to conduct deportation proceedings for people whom the Justice Department classifies as \u201calien terrorists.\u201d The court is composed of five federal judges from different districts across the country who are appointed by the U.S. chief justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who plot acts of terrorism against the United States have no place in our country,\u201d Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. \u201cWe will find them, and we will use every lawful tool available to remove them.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 30, Judge Joan Ericksen presided over the first hearing for the court\u2019s first case since its creation 30 years ago.<\/p>\n

One of Haji Zada\u2019s attorneys argued at the hearing that the Trump administration\u2019s activation of\u00a0the court<\/a>\u00a0violates her constitutional rights. Attorney Matthew Farley urged the judge to dismiss the case and immediately release his client.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0FBI memo<\/a>\u00a0dated July 15 said it \u201cdeveloped information\u201d that Zada is an IS supporter who had her children pledge their loyalty to the terrorist group. Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced in November to 15 years in prison and court records show he previously agreed to be removed from the U.S. after his release.<\/p>\n

Her son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, previously worked as a security guard for an American military installation in Afghanistan. He pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the\u00a0Islamic State group<\/a>. Prosecutors have said he took steps to advance his attack plans by ordering AK-47 rifles, liquidating his family\u2019s assets and buying one-way tickets for his wife and child to travel home to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Afghan woman who was accused of supporting an Islamic State-inspired plot in the United States and whose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-433295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}