Overview
- The Justice Department filed an application on July 15 seeking to remove Nazira Haji Zada and arrested her earlier this week; she is scheduled to appear at an initial ATRC hearing in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, July 30, 2026.
- DOJ and the FBI say unclassified summaries tie Zada to an ISIS‑inspired Election Day 2024 plot by alleging she pledged loyalty to ISIS, helped indoctrinate family members, and supported actions by her son and son‑in‑law who were arrested in October 2024.
- The underlying criminal case resulted in guilty pleas and a 15‑year sentence for her son Abdullah and a guilty plea by son‑in‑law Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, with court records saying the family sold assets and bought one‑way tickets to move relatives to Afghanistan before the planned attack.
- The ATRC process allows the government to submit classified material in camera and ex parte that the respondent may not review and bars routine legal challenges to evidence collection, prompting lawyers and civil‑liberties observers to raise due‑process and transparency concerns.
- If the court rules for removal this case could set precedent for using a long‑dormant 1996 tribunal to deport noncitizens on national‑security grounds, and decisions from the ATRC can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.