Leqaa Kordia was released last month after spending a year in a Texas immigration detention center. According to major media, she was detained by ICE following her arrest at a protest against Israel's war in Gaza. An immigration judge for the third time ruled that Leqaa Kordia posed no threat and ordered her release on bond.
Leqaa Kordia participated in an April 2024 pro-Palestinian protest outside Columbia University, where she was arrested along with dozens of others. According to major media, the charges against Leqaa Kordia were dropped the following day after her arrest. Research indicates she was arrested last March during a routine check-in with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Jersey. Immigration authorities said they arrested her in 2025 for overstaying her expired student visa.
I see a lot of similarities between the treatment of people in ICE custody and that of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
More than 200 members of Leqaa Kordia's extended family were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza. According to major media, she has been living in the U.S. for nearly a decade after leaving the West Bank to reunite with her mother, who is a U.S. citizen. Major media reports indicate she has a pending green card application via her mother and no criminal record. When Leqaa Kordia was nine years old, during the second intifada, she woke up one day to a group of Israeli soldiers in her bedroom, pointing guns at her. Palestinians in the occupied territory were living under curfew, with snipers stationed on the family's rooftop for days and tanks lined the streets outside their home, and Leqaa Kordia was used to checkpoints, raids, and daily humiliations as a child in Palestine.
Immigration officials appealed the first two rulings, but Kordia was freed on a $100,000 bond after government lawyers did not challenge the third, according to research. Until Monday, Kordia was the only person targeted in connection with the demonstration who was still in immigration detention after the release of others, including Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, research shows.
I will continue to speak up about the rights of Palestinians and denounce the 'human tragedy' of immigration detention in the U.S.
Leqaa Kordia was hospitalized on 6 February for a seizure she had while in detention. According to www.aljazeera.com, Leqaa Kordia's lawyers described that she had a neurological condition that had worsened while in custody, putting her at an elevated risk of seizure. Her legal team told Al Jazeera that Kordia’s legs were chained to her bed, and she was denied access to legal counsel or family while in hospital.
Leqaa Kordia's lawyers argue she was targeted by the administration of US President Donald Trump for her political activism against Israel’s genocidal war, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to research. According to The Guardian - World, Leqaa Kordia described seeing a lot of similarities between the treatment of people in ICE custody and that of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
I didn't see myself as an activist but rather 'just a Palestinian girl, protesting her family being killed'.
Leqaa Kordia was arrested around the same time as Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both Palestinian and Columbia University students, major media reports. A federal judge in Boston ruled that the detention of Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi was unconstitutional and intentionally designed to chill speech, according to major media.
Leqaa Kordia's release followed mounting pressure from legislators and human rights groups, major media indicates. The specific actions taken by these groups and their demands have not been detailed publicly.
I will advocate on behalf of the women I left behind at the Prairieland detention center in Alvarado, Texas.
According to major media, Leqaa Kordia spoke with the Guardian at a Palestinian cafe in Paterson, New Jersey, two weeks after returning home. Her legal team said she left the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on Monday and was returning to her family in New Jersey, research shows. According to www.aljazeera.com, Leqaa Kordia described her freedom with excitement, and according to The Guardian - World, she described her intention to continue speaking up about Palestinian rights and denouncing immigration detention.
What specific evidence Kordia's lawyers have to support their claim that she was targeted by the Trump administration for her political activism remains unclear. Why immigration officials appealed the first two bond rulings for Kordia but not the third has not been explained by authorities. The current status of Kordia's green card application and the likelihood of its approval is unknown, though according to www.aljazeera.com, Leqaa Kordia's lawyer described she was in the process of securing legal residence. The specific conditions or treatments in ICE detention that Kordia compared to life under Israeli occupation have not been fully enumerated. The exact nature of the pressure exerted by legislators and human rights groups for Kordia's release has not been publicly detailed.
My time in ICE custody brought back many memories of my childhood in Palestine.
I’m free! I’m free! Finally, after one year.
I will keep fighting on behalf of people still being held at the detention centre.
There is a lot of injustice in this place. There is a lot of people that shouldn’t be here in the first place.
She was in the process of securing legal residence.
She had a neurological condition that had worsened while in custody, putting her at an elevated risk of seizure.
She could stay with US citizen family members and did not pose a flight risk.