Secretive U.S. Deportation Court Opens
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. flag and Judge gavel are seen in this illustration taken, August 6, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
WASHINGTON, July 30 — A secretive U.S. court created in 1996 to deport suspected terrorists convened for the first time Thursday, opening a new front in the Trump administration’s effort to remove non-citizens accused of posing national security threats.
The public hearing before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court centered on Nazira Haji Zada, a 47-year-old lawful permanent resident from Texas.
The Justice Department accuses Haji Zada of supporting Islamic State and helping conceal a failed mass-shooting plot planned for Election Day 2024.
Haji Zada has not been charged with a crime, court documents show. Her son and son-in-law pleaded guilty to related charges last year.
Prosecutors said much of the evidence against her is classified and cannot be publicly disclosed.
Congress established the court 30 years ago to handle deportation cases involving classified national security information. It allows the government to rely on evidence that may not be available publicly or fully disclosed to the person facing removal.
Haji Zada’s attorney, Matthew Farley, argued that the process violates constitutional due process protections.
“This entire scheme is in violation of due process and unconstitutional,” Farley said during the hearing. “This is a runaround to bringing a criminal case.”
Farley asked Chief Judge Joan Ericksen to dismiss the case and immediately release Haji Zada.
Ericksen, a federal district judge appointed to oversee the court, denied the request.
The court had never been used before Justice Department officials sought Haji Zada’s removal this month.
The FBI arrested her Tuesday at her home in Fort Worth.
“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,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement before the hearing.
In a brief unclassified summary, the Justice Department alleged that Haji Zada had indoctrinated her children “with ISIS ideology.”
The department also alleged that she concealed her family’s radicalization and a planned move to Islamic State-controlled territory from her husband.
The FBI said in a July 15 memo that releasing the underlying information could help terrorist organizations evade prevention or detection measures or expose sources used by the FBI and other U.S. intelligence agencies.
Because the court had never previously heard a case, the judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys spent part of Thursday’s proceeding addressing basic procedural questions.
Those questions included how court documents would be handled and who would be permitted to access classified evidence.
It was not immediately clear when the next hearing would take place.
(Source: Reuters)
