Administration to use secretive deportation court for the first time
by Lisa Hornung · UPIJuly 30 (UPI) -- The Trump administration on Thursday will test a secret, never-used deportation court for alleged terrorists with an Afghan mother whose son was convicted of terrorism because the Department of Justice believes she has Islamic State sympathies.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was created in 1996, but has never been used. The administration will use it to try to deport Nazira Haji Zada, whose son was convicted last year for a terrorist plot targeting the 2024 election, according to court filings.
Zada, 47, is scheduled to appear in court at 11:30 EDT Thursday. The initial status hearing will be in a public, federal court in Washington D.C.
"The underlying information is classified because disclosure would enable terrorists and terrorist organizations to avoid preventative or detection measures or would reveal FBI or other U.S. Intelligence Community sources and methods by which such information is obtained," the DOJ said in the unclassified summary.
Zada has no criminal history, but the Justice Department alleges that she "worked to indoctrinate her children with ISIS ideology and have them pledge loyalty to ISIS."
Though the hearing Thursday will be public, details about the case will be kept secret, even from Zada, causing some to ask if the proceedings are legal under the U.S. Constitution.
"This is just another way for Trump to make it almost impossible to get asylum in the U.S.," Ernesto Castaneda, the director of the Center for Latin American & Latino Studies at American University, told USA Today. "It's going to result in more people becoming undocumented and not having permission to work here."
Immigration officials in the administration don't agree.
"One of the greatest barriers to effective immigration enforcement is intentional delay by illegal aliens and the open borders attorneys who represent them," DHS General Counsel James Percival said in a statement, USA Today reported. "My office works every day with the immigration components of DHS to improve efficiency and fulfill the President's mandate. The rule would do just that."
The court is made up of five U.S. district court judges, led by chief judge Joan Ericksen. She is reviewing the Zada case. On Monday, Ericksen granted the application for the case to move forward in the court, though she noted that in the removal hearing, the prosecution will have to prove guilt with a preponderance of evidence.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche approved use of the special court on June 30, saying the case fits the qualifications.
"Congress created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court three decades ago to remove from the United States alien terrorists who never should have been here in the first place," Blanche said in a statement. "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."
In court documents, the government alleges that Zada had planned to move to Afghanistan with her siblings while her son and son-in-law carried out the 2024 planned attack. The allegations arose in the criminal case against her son-in-law Nazir Tawhedi. That plot was intercepted by the FBI.
One of Zada's sons, Abdullah Haji Zada, pleaded guilty in federal court in Oklahoma to attempting to provide material support to ISIS and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Tawhedi pleaded guilty last year to similar charges. He is awaiting sentencing and is under court-ordered psychiatric evaluation.
Nazira Zada's husband, Abdul, worked for the U.S. government on Afghanistan's Bagram Air Force Base from 2009 to 2016. Investigators say he didn't know anything about the plot.