She Was Just Released After a Full Year in ICE Detention. They Never Even Charged Her with a Crime.

Some uncharitable souls have characterized the Trump administration as “vindictive” in its use of the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arbitrarily punish those who aren’t American citizens, if those people happen to espouse any opinions that the federal government doesn’t care for. But who would say such a thing, when the people detained by ICE for attending a protest are eventually released? You know, released safe and sound … after a year of imprisonment. With no trial. And no criminal charges filed against them. And no fewer than three orders from a judge to release that person. That’s all it takes to get out of a detention camp! Who would fairly describe that as “vindictive”?

That is a brief summary of the hell that New Jersey resident Leqaa Kordia was put through, after she was detained by DHS and spent just over a full year suffering and ill in a Texas detention center, while the U.S. government threatened to deport her to her homeland in Palestine, which was in the process of being flattened and ethnically cleansed by Israel. Despite the fact that Kordia reportedly had dozens of family members in Palestine killed in the conflict, ICE kept her in detention and refused to release her even after a judge twice ordered her released on bond. This week, the DHS agency finally relented after the judge ordered Kordia’s release a third time, with an even larger bond. And despite DHS repeatedly claiming she was a criminal terrorist sympathizer, the government never actually charged Kordia with a crime of any kind.

The trouble began following protests on the campus of Columbia University in April of 2024, as Palestinian students and supporters protested the indiscriminate killing happening in Gaza via (often U.S.-produced) Israeli weapons. Following the protests, which she reportedly attended to mourn her own relatives killed in the conflict, the now 33-year-old Leqaa Kordia was arrested by the NYPD and briefly charged with “disorderly conduct,” but the charges were quickly dismissed and the case was sealed. That should have been the end of the trouble, but DHS then sought information and records on Kordia, and the NYPD turned the records of her sealed arrest over despite the fact that New York state law explicitly states that sealed arrest/summons records cannot be released. DHS then took Leqaa Kordia into custody on March 13, 2025, ultimately transferring her to Texas’ Prairieland Detention Center, south of Dallas. You know, the same facility where ICE had previously admitted to deleting the security footage involved in a detainee death. It’s a great place, I hear.

When they try to silence us, we only come back louder. I'm grateful and relieved that Leqaa Kordia has finally been released and can go home to NJ.

None of this should've ever happened just because Leqaa exercised her right to free speech. This admin must be held accountable.

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— Rep. LaMonica McIver (@replamonica.bsky.social) Mar 16, 2026 at 8:18 PM

In justifying Kordia’s detention, DHS decided to try a few different lines of reasoning on simultaneously. It is true that she was currently in the U.S. on a F-1 student visa that expired in 2022, but why would it be necessary to hold her in a prison camp in Texas for a year to work through mundane deportation proceedings? Kordia would presumably have argued at those court dates that she had no home left in Palestine to go back to, her relatives there having been killed in the violence. Instead of taking a dispassionate, bureaucratic tone, however, DHS decided to take personal offense at the thought of Kordia breathing American air, saying that she had “actively participated in anti-American, pro-terrorist activities on campus.” A statement from outgoing, shame-laden DHS Secretary Kristi Noem took delight in the idea of revoking visas in this scenario simply because of an opinion possessed by a person at a protest.

“It is a privilege to be granted a visa to live and study in the United States of America,” Noem’s statement said. “When you advocate for violence and terrorism that privilege should be revoked, and you should not be in this country.”

In addition to claiming that she was a terrorist sympathizer, DHS lawyers also said they were investigating Kordia about funds she sent overseas. According to documents presented at immigration hearings, these “funds” turned out to be roughly $1,000 that Kordia had sent to help her family in Gaza, with no evidence presented that she had done a single thing that was illegal. This was tacitly confirmed by the government choosing not to actually charge Kordia with any kind of crime when releasing her. It should be noted that overstaying a visa is not itself considered a crime, but rather a civil violation.

While at Prairieland Detention Center, meanwhile, Kordia’s health deteriorated, and she began to experience fainting spells and seizures that her doctor believes are consistent with epilepsy. After a bathroom fall triggered a seizure, Kordia was transferred to a hospital, where she spent days chained to a bed under guard, her whereabouts reportedly unknown to her family and attorneys. Through those lawyers, she later released a statement saying that the facility’s “filthy” conditions had led to her illness, saying that she was in detention alongside pregnant women and those with terminal cancer and severe disabilities.

Finally, after two previous instances in which an immigration judge ordered her release on bond, only for the government to refuse to release her, Leqaa Kordia was finally released on Monday following a third order, which set her bond at $100,000. She will remain in deportation proceedings, but still hasn’t been charged with any crime.

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— Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@mayor.nyc.gov) Mar 16, 2026 at 6:40 PM

It is possible that her release is at least partially due to the savvy manipulation of New York City mayor and charm machine Zohran Mamdani, who in his recent oval office meeting with Donald Trump, specifically brought up the case of Kordia. Trump, being completely without any kind of consistent standards or ideology, seems to be completely smitten with Mamdani’s charisma and celebrity, and has subsequently granted most of what the mayor requested that day. On Twitter, Mamdani noted this in expressing his happiness at Kordia’s release: “In my meeting with President Trump last month, we discussed ICE’s actions at Columbia University. I asked that the federal government release Leqaa Kordia and drop the cases against four others. 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.”

Regardless, it’s safe to say we can’t even imagine how crushing, demoralizing, physically humiliating and draining it would be for any person to spend a year in ICE detention, particularly a woman who was also a person of color. Unsurprisingly, Kordia’s cousin Hamzah Abushaban said in his statement that the year had “taken an unimaginable toll” on them all.

“We are overwhelmed with relief and gratitude at the release of our beloved Leqaa Kordia,” said Abushaban. “No family should have to endure what ours has experienced.”