PATERSON—Leqaa Kordia walked free from ICE custody Monday after posting a $100,000 bond ordered by a Texas immigration judge. The 33-year-old Palestinian woman had spent one year and three days detained at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, following her arrest at a routine immigration check-in in New Jersey on March 13, 2025. She is the last person released from the Trump administration’s 2025 crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus protesters.

Kordia entered the United States in 2016 on a tourist visa and settled in Paterson, where she lives with her mother, a U.S. citizen. She joined an April 2024 demonstration outside Columbia University protesting Israeli military action in Gaza, where she said scores of her relatives had been killed. NYPD officers arrested her with approximately one hundred other protesters; a New York court later dismissed and sealed the charges.

Federal agents took her into custody at a routine ICE check-in in New Jersey on March 13, 2025, then immediately flew her to the privately run detention facility south of Dallas. Immigration Judge Tara Naslow ordered her release on $20,000 bond last year, but the Department of Homeland Security challenged the decision and invoked an automatic stay that blocked her departure. A second bond order met the same fate.

Three Bond Orders, Two Federal Blocks

On Friday, March 13, 2026—exactly one year after Kordia’s detention began—Naslow set bond at $100,000. DHS attorney Anastasia Norcross argued that no amount would guarantee Kordia’s appearance, citing her overstayed visa and money transfers to relatives in the Middle East.

The judge found “overwhelming evidence” that Kordia told the truth about sending money to help family members suffering during war. The government declined to challenge the third order, allowing her release that evening.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m free! I’m free! Finally, after one year,” Kordia told reporters outside the detention center. “I’m looking forward to going home and hugging my mother so hard.” She described conditions at Prairieland as unjust, stating “There is a lot of people that shouldn’t be here the first place.”

Kordia’s cousin Hamzah Abushaban released a statement through attorneys, saying, “We are overwhelmed with relief and gratitude.” Representatives from CAIR-NJ, Boston University School of Law Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Texas Civil Rights Project and CLEAR coordinated her legal defense. Attorney Sarah Sherman-Stokes said “Leqaa should not have spent a single moment in ICE detention, let alone an entire year.” Travis Fife of the Texas Civil Rights Project stated “Leqaa going home today is the bare minimum.”

Health Crisis in Detention

Kordia’s health had deteriorated during detention. She suffered a seizure after fainting and hitting her head at the facility recently, requiring three days of hospitalization during which she was shackled to her bed. She has a pre-existing neurological condition that worsened while in custody, according to her legal team. “She was chained like an animal,” Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh said last year. “We don’t want this woman to die.”

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin maintained in a post-release statement that “The facts of this case have not changed: Leqaa Kordia is in the country illegally after violating the terms of her visa.” The agency described the payments to relatives as “providing financial support to individuals living in nations hostile to the U.S.” McLaughlin added that the Trump administration “will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani met with President Trump in February 2026 to request Kordia’s release and the dropping of charges against four other activists. “I am grateful that Leqaa has been released this evening from ICE custody after more than a year in detention for speaking up for Palestinian rights,” Mamdani said Monday. U.S. Representative Nellie Pou, whose district includes Paterson, called the detention “marred by cruelness, religious discrimination, and persecution.”

Longest Detention Among Columbia Protesters

Kordia was not a student and lacked the organizational support that helped other protesters secure faster release. Former Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was detained in Louisiana for three months; Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk spent six weeks in custody. Kordia remained detained longer than any other protester from the Columbia demonstrations, with her case receiving less public attention.

Her immigration case remains active despite the bond release, which only guarantees her appearance at future hearings rather than ending removal proceedings. She returns to Paterson’s Muslim community, one of the largest in the United States, while her attorneys continue fighting any potential deportation.

Sources

- Associated Press, “Palestinian woman detained after a Columbia protest is released on bond” (March 16, 2026)

- NPR, “Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia is released from ICE custody” (March 16, 2026)

- NJ.com, “N.J. woman jailed 1 year by ICE after Columbia protest released on $100K bond” (March 16, 2026)

- CBS News New York, “Leqaa Kordia freed from ICE custody after more than a year” (March 16, 2026)

- Houston Public Media, “Dallas immigration judge orders release of Palestinian activist after year in ICE detention” (March 16, 2026)

- Council on American-Islamic Relations, “CAIR Welcomes Release of Leqaa Kordia” (March 18, 2026)