By ERIC TUCKER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 obscure and long-dormant court has been deported, the Justice Department said Friday.
Nazira Haji Zada, 47, was arrested in July at her Fort Worth, Texas, home and brought before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court on 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.
It wasn’t immediately clear when or to where she was deported.
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.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the case’s outcome is “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 (court) shows how the Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country,” Blanche said in a statement.
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.
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.
The long-dormant court has specific authority to conduct deportation proceedings for people whom the Justice Department classifies as “alien terrorists.” The court is comprised of five federal judges from different districts across the country who are appointed by the U.S. chief justice.
“Those who plot acts of terrorism against the United States have no place in our country,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “We will find them, and we will use every lawful tool available to remove them.”