A Palestinian woman, the last individual detained due to the Trump administration’s 2025 clampdown on pro-Palestinian activists, has been released after a year-long confinement, her legal team announced on Monday.
Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old who calls New Jersey home since 2016, had been held in a Texas immigration detention center since March of the previous year. She was among approximately 100 individuals apprehended during 2024 protests at Columbia University.
Despite an immigration judge granting her release on bond three times, the government contested the initial two rulings. However, Kordia finally gained her freedom after the government chose not to challenge the third decision.
Her recent health scare, involving a seizure and a head injury due to fainting, resulted in a three-day hospital stay from the privately operated detention center.
Expressing profound relief, Hamzah Abushaban, Kordia’s cousin, stated on behalf of her attorneys, “We are overwhelmed with relief and gratitude at the release of our beloved Leqaa Kordia. This past year has taken an unimaginable toll on Leqaa and our entire family.”
Kordia participated in the 2024 protests in response to the loss of numerous relatives in Gaza, with whom she shares strong connections. “My way of helping my family and my people was to go to the streets,” she explained to The Associated Press in October.
The charges against her for the protest were dismissed and sealed. Information about her arrest was later given to the Trump administration by the New York City Police Department, which said it was told the records were needed as part of a money laundering investigation.
Kordia was arrested during a March 13, 2025, check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New Jersey. She was detained immediately and flown to Prairieland Detention Center, south of Dallas.
She was among a number of people arrested after the Trump administration began using its immigration enforcement powers on noncitizens who had criticized or protested Israel’s military actions in Gaza, many students and scholars at American universities.
Also among them was Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student who was arrested last March and spent three months detained in a Louisiana immigration jail before being freed.
But while arrests of campus activists like Khalil drew condemnation from elected officials and advocates, Kordia was not a student or part of a group that might have provided support, so her case remained largely out of the public eye.
Federal officials have accused Kordia of overstaying her visa, while scrutinizing payments she sent to relatives in the Middle East. Kordia said the money was meant to help family members suffering during the war.
An immigration judge found “overwhelming evidence” that Kordia was telling the truth about the payments.
At a hearing Friday, Kordia’s attorneys said she had a neurological condition that had worsened while in custody, putting her at an elevated risk of seizure. They reiterated that she could stay with U.S. citizen family members and did not pose a flight risk.
The immigration judge, Tara Naslow, agreed.
“I’ve heard testimony. I’ve seen thousands of pages of evidence presented by the respondent, and very little evidence presented by the government in any of this,” Naslow said.
An attorney for the Department of Homeland Security, Anastasia Norcross, said the government opposed the release of Kordia, regardless of the bond. She did not say at the time whether it would appeal for a third time.
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