{"id":8193,"date":"2026-07-31T00:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/31\/trump-administration-appeals-to-never-before-used-court-for-deportation\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T00:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T00:35:17","slug":"trump-administration-appeals-to-never-before-used-court-for-deportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/31\/trump-administration-appeals-to-never-before-used-court-for-deportation\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration appeals to never-before-used court for deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>US prosecutors are appealing to the Alien Terrorist Removal Court for the removal of Nazira Haji Zada, though she faces no criminal charges.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>The administration of President Donald Trump has convened, for the first time, a court created to facilitate the removal of alleged \u201cterrorists\u201d from the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Critics say that Thursday\u2019s hearing of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court is yet another way the Trump administration is seeking to circumvent due process protections.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/17\/ice-agent-behind-fatal-shooting-in-maine-reportedly-had-troubled-history\">ICE agent behind fatal shooting in Maine reportedly had troubled history<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/21\/us-appeals-court-overturns-ruling-that-freed-columbia-activist-mahdawi\">US appeals court overturns ruling that freed Columbia activist Mahdawi<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/7\/26\/trumps-border-czar-suggests-vetting-failures-after-deadly-ice-shooting\">Trump\u2019s border czar probes possible vetting failures after ICE shooting<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was first created in 1996 but has never been used in the three decades since, and its legality is hotly debated.<\/p>\n<p>Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, however, argued that the court was necessary to adjudicate the case of an Afghan woman who lives in the US as a permanent legal resident.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCongress 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,\u201d Blanche said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration has accused Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old resident of Fort Worth, Texas, of participating in an alleged shooting plot, set to be carried out on election day in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The plot involved her sons, Tawhedi and Abdullah Haji Zada, who were arrested in October 2024, before any suspected violence could occur. Both men pleaded guilty. Abdullah is serving 15 years in prison, and Tawhedi is awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI says it scuttled the plot when the two men attempted to buy two rifles and 500 rounds of ammunition from an undercover agent.<\/p>\n<p>No criminal charges, however, have been levied against their mother, Nazira.<\/p>\n<p>While the Justice Department claims there is \u201ca preponderance of the evidence\u201d against Nazira, government lawyers told the Alien Terrorist Removal Court that its case included classified information that could not be released to the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d the FBI wrote in a July 15 memo.<\/p>\n<p>Courts, however, generally have procedures for handling classified information, and a judge on the Alien Terrorist Removal Court expressed scepticism about the government\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department\u2019s case includes the allegation that Nazira stoked her son\u2019s sympathies for ISIL (ISIS), an armed group that the US considers a \u201cforeign terrorist organisation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It also claims she planned to leave the US on a one-way ticket to Kabul, Afghanistan, ahead of her sons\u2019 planned attack in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Nazira\u2019s lawyer, public defender Matthew Farley, has accused the Trump administration of seeking to advance its mass deportation push by sidestepping normal legal protections for foreign nationals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,\u201d said Farley, calling the hearing \u201ca runaround for bringing a criminal case\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Five judges from around the US serve on the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.<\/p>\n<p>At Thursday\u2019s hearing, Judge Joan Ericksen declined Farley\u2019s request to dismiss the case immediately.<\/p>\n<p>But the court acknowledged that it was still establishing its \u201cinfrastructure\u201d, and Eriksen clarified that Nazira was not facing criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not a criminal matter,\u201d the judge told her. \u201cThis is a civil matter that arises under the immigration code.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US prosecutors are appealing to the Alien Terrorist Removal Court for the removal of Nazira Haji Zada, though she faces no criminal charges. The administration of President Donald Trump has convened, for the first time, a court created to facilitate the removal of alleged \u201cterrorists\u201d from the United States. Critics say that Thursday\u2019s hearing of &#8230; <a title=\"Trump administration appeals to never-before-used court for deportation\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/07\/31\/trump-administration-appeals-to-never-before-used-court-for-deportation\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump administration appeals to never-before-used court for deportation\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}