The Justice Department has invoked a rarely used 1996 federal statute for the first time, filing a case in the U.S. Alien Terrorist Removal Court to deport an Afghan matriarch accused of assisting her family's plot to launch an ISIS-inspired mass shooting on Election Day in 2024. The respondent, 47-year-old Nazira Haji Zada of Fort Worth, was arrested earlier this week and scheduled to appear Thursday before Chief Judge Joan N. Ericksen in Washington, D.C. The application to initiate removal proceedings was filed on July 15. Federal authorities allege Zada supported a terror plot orchestrated by her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who were previously arrested and convicted for their roles in the conspiracy.

Alleged terror plot What we know: According to court filings, the family tried to finance their planned Nov. 5, 2024 attack by liquidating assets, including their furniture, personal electronics, and vehicles.

Zada signed a contract to sell the family's house and purchased one-way airline tickets to take her younger children to Kabul, Afghanistan, shortly before the scheduled attack.