The Trump administration is invoking a specialised federal court for the first time since it was created three decades ago, in a bid to deport an Afghan woman accused of aiding an Islamic State-inspired plot targeting Election Day. The move marks the debut use of this long-dormant legal mechanism, underscoring how seriously officials are treating the alleged threat and signalling a more aggressive approach to using existing but rarely-tapped legal tools against suspected national security risks.

The woman named in the case, Nazira Haji Zada of Fort Worth, Texas, is accused of providing support connected to the terror plot, according to court records made public on Wednesday. Details of the specific court and the full scope of the allegations against her were not fully outlined in the available reporting, though the case ties into a broader pattern of federal action against alleged terror plots, including a separate recent case involving eight people charged over an alleged plot to attack a UFC event and government officials.