A Palestinian woman from New Jersey who was arrested after her participation in a 2024 anti-war protest remains in federal custody in Texas 10 months later. Now, advocates and Texas lawmakers are demanding Leqaa Kordia’s release.
Kordia was detained last March for allegedly overstaying her visa and transported to the Prairieland Detention Facility near Alvarado. She had previously been arrested in 2024 during a protest at Columbia University against Israel’s war in Gaza and is now the last protester still in detention, despite a judge’s recommendation last year to release her while her case is pending.
“Our justice system is flawed,” her cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, said during a news conference outside the Prairieland Detention Center Friday morning. “It’s broken.”
Kordia remains in ICE custody even after an immigration judge last April ordered her release upon payment of a $20,000 bond. In August another immigration judge upheld the ruling, but U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed an automatic stay, according to Texas Civil Rights Project, which is part of Kordia’s legal team.
Texas representatives and senators earlier last week wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding Kordia’s “immediate release,” detailing concerns over “inadequate medical care, unregulated temperatures, inadequate and inedible food, lack of halal meals and overcrowding.”
Speaking Friday, state Rep. Salman Bhojani, who represents part of Tarrant County, said he had been approved to visit Kordia, but was denied entry. When he showed security staff his email showing the visitation approval, he was told that all visitations were cancelled, he said, because of concerns over possible protesters outside.
"I came here to listen firsthand what is happening inside the detention facility and to understand the conditions people like Leqaa are being forced into after speaking out against the injustices in this country and around the world,” Bhojani said.
He called the conditions at Prairieland “suffocating.” He said her dorm had 60 mattresses crammed into a space designed for 20 women.
“For months, Leqaa has slept on a thin mat directly hitting the ground with cockroaches and insects crawling around her," Bhojani said. “She does not even have clothing that fully covers her body. Community organizations have tried to provide more appropriate clothing and have been turned away. Male staff enter the dorm at any time, leaving her body exposed in violation of her religious obligations.”
KERA has reached out to ICE and will update with any response.
Abushaban flew from Florida to visit Kordia Friday but was also denied entry into Prairieland. At the news conference, he said he talked to his cousin at least four to five times a week.
She has missed birthdays and family medical emergencies involving her mother, he said, and will miss Ramadan for the second time.
“The only crime she committed was being Palestinian, and the only crimes she committed was speaking up for Palestine in the form of her freedom of speech, in the form of protest, which is her constitutional right," Abushaban said.
In a comment directed to Secretary Noem, Abushan said the Department of Homeland Security conceded Kordia “is zero threat to this country.”
Travis Fife, an attorney with Texas Civil Rights Project, read a statement from Kordia in which she wrote the 300 days in detention have made her “300 times prouder to be a Palestinian.
“I'm 300 times more faithful, I'm 300 times closer to Allah, I'm 300 times more hopeful. I'm 300 times more grateful,” Fife read.
Kordia also said: “I am 300 times stronger, but I'm also 300 times more humiliated. I'm 300 times more frustrated. I'm300 times more loved.”
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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