Supporters of a Columbia University protestor detained by ICE in Texas for almost ayear are hopeful she'll soon be released, as her attorney says her health continues to deteriorate.
Leqaa Kordia, who was hospitalized last month after a seizure, has been at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center since she was arrested March of last year. That's despite a judge's recommendation that she be released while her case is pending.
Her attorney, Travis Fife with the Texas Civil Rights Project, filed a petition for her release and expected a decision from a federal judge by March 16, he said.
“We apprised the court of these changes in her health and have argued that they support releasing her as quickly as possible,” Fife said.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also publicly demanded Kordia’s release.
Last month, Mamdani posted a message on X calling Kordia’s detainment “cruel and unnecessary,” citing her hospitalization.
“Release Leqaa now,” the message read.
Kordia was arrested for allegedly overstaying her visa in March. Before that, she had been arrested during a 2024 protest at Columbia University against Israel’s war in Gaza. She was one of four pro-Palestinian protestors who were arrested by immigration authorities last year and is the last one in detention. Advocates have said she was exercising her constitutional right freedom of speech and should not have been arrested.
“It's important to keep in mind that as the public hears about the inhumane treatment she's receiving and the severe risk to her health that further confinement imposes that President Trump today, as we're talking, should release her,” Fife told KERA.
ICE did not respond to requests for comment.
On Thursday, protestors gathered in front of the Dallas ICE Field Office to demand her release from Prairieland. About 40 people gathered on the sidewalk in front of the building.
Chants of “Free Leqaa now” could be heard over the backdrop of cars and 18-wheelers passing by. A group of demonstrators unfurled a banner that read “Bring Leqaa Home! Protesting Genocide is not a crime!”
Protesters noted that this was going to be Kordia’s second Ramadan away from her family.
Sumayyah El-Heet, a community organizer for the Palestinian Youth Movement, said she and others are worried for the deterioration of Kordia’s health and her treatment while she was hospitalized. “She woke up in a hospital bed chained to the bed after the seizure and she was so scared,” El-Heet said.
Kordia was hospitalized on Feb 6. and spent72 hour sin the hospital. At least 30 people have died in ICE custody since President Donald Trump took office a second time.
“We've seen there is a lot of documentation of many people suffering, of health neglect, medical neglect, and even death in ICE custody,” El-Heet said. It is absolutely a valid fear, and human rights organizations have been calling for her to be released.”
