Leqaa Kordia, a pro-Palestinian activist, released after a year in ICE custody | US news
A New Jersey woman who was arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest and sent to a U.S. immigration detention center in Texas last March has been released on bail after a year in detention.
Leqaa Kordia, 33, originally from the West Bank, was arrested in April 2024 while protesting Israel’s war on Gaza outside Columbia University. About a year later, he was taken into custody after reporting to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in New Jersey to register.
“This past year has taken an unimaginable toll on Leqaa and our entire family,” said Hamzah Abushaban, Kordia’s cousin. “We are grateful to our community for standing by us every step of the way, and for the countless prayers we prayed this past Ramadan; those moments of sincerity and hope carried us through some of our darkest days.”
Kordia was released Monday from the Prairieland detention center in Alvarado, Texas, on $100,000 bail. He remained in custody despite the judge ruling three times that he posed no threat and could be released on bail.
“Since his detention more than a year ago, the government has made every effort to deny him his fundamental rights and freedoms and blocked his release not once, but twice,” said Travis Fife, one of Kordia’s attorneys and staff attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project. “Leqaa going home today is the bare minimum. We must continue to defend the fundamental first amendment principle that the government cannot abuse its power to punish people for using their voices.”
He and his lawyers had repeatedly raised the alarm about filthy and dangerous conditions at the detention center. He was hospitalized in February after suffering a seizure, and in a statement through his lawyer, he said he was chained by his hands and legs for 72 hours during his hospital stay.
“ICE detention facilities were built to break people, destroy their health and hope,” he said. “I want everyone to know what happened to me because the same things happen to other women locked up here.”
There was Kordia last person He remains in immigration detention following the Trump administration’s 2025 crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. He was detained around the same time as protesters Mahmud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.
Kristi Noem, the former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, accused Kordia of being a terrorist sympathizer and said the government was investigating funds he sent abroad. His lawyers said Kordia, who worked as a server, sent about $1,000 to help his family in Gaza.
According to his attorneys, Kordia had a pending asylum application while in custody and is currently in the process of obtaining permanent residency through his mother, a U.S. citizen.
“This is an important step in restoring the rights of Leqaa, who continues to be unlawfully targeted by the government for defending the rights of Palestinians,” said Sarah Sherman-Stokes, supervisor of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law.
Kordia’s case garnered support from lawmakers, including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who personally appealed to Trump to release Kordia.
On the anniversary of his March 3 detention, after a judge granted bail for Kordia for the first time, Kordia said he hoped to be reunited with his family soon. “My only wish is for the government to release me now so that I can go home to my family. Until then, I will continue to raise my voice for the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people, from Texas to Palestine,” he said.
