Last pro-Palestinian activist walks free as US government drops challenge to immigration bond

Woman detained after pro-Palestinian protest released from US custody. (Photo/AP)

Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian activist and New Jersey resident, has been released from US immigration custody after a year of detention. Arrested during 2024 protests at Columbia University, Kordia was targeted amidst a broader administrative crackdown on noncitizen activists criticizing Israel's military operations in Gaza. Her release follows three separate bond orders from an immigration judge, which the government eventually ceased challenging. With her criminal charges dismissed and sealed, Kordia’s release concludes a prolonged detention period that included significant health complications and highlighted the intersection of immigration policy and political activism.

Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian activist, was released from US immigration detention after one year.
Her arrest occurred during 2024 Columbia University protests against Israel's military actions in Gaza.
Despite multiple bond rulings by an immigration judge, the government delayed her release for months.
Her criminal charges related to the protest were ultimately dismissed and sealed.

A Palestinian woman has been released from US immigration detention after a year in custody following the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists, according to her lawyers.

Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old from the occupied West Bank who has lived in New Jersey since 2016, had been held in a US immigration detention centre in Texas since last March.

Kordia was among roughly 100 people arrested outside Columbia University during protests at the school in 2024.

An immigration judge had ordered her released on bond three times.

The government challenged the first two rulings, but Kordia was freed on Monday after it did not challenge the third.

She was recently hospitalised for three days following a seizure after fainting and hitting her head at the privately run detention facility.

Kordia said she joined the 2024 demonstration after Israel killed scores of her relatives in Gaza, where she maintains deep personal ties.

The charges against her for the protest were dismissed and sealed.

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 criticised 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.

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Source: TRT