7 months later, NJ protester still jailed

Paterson native arrested after Newark meeting

By: Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... As courts ordered the release of pro-Palestinian protesters across the United States, one women has remained behind bars: Laqaa Kordia, a 32-year-old Paterson resident.
..... Koprdia has spent more than seven months in immigration detention in Texas - even though she was not charged with a crime, a judge twice ordered her release, and the government decided that she was unlikely to be a flight risk or a danger.
..... The Department of Homeland Security says Kordia violated her visa. but her attorneys and civil rights groups argue she was targeted as part f a broader crackdown on Pro-Palestinain speech.
..... Her family and attorney are pinning there hopes on an October 23 [2025] immigration court hearing, where a judge will consider a motion to end what they call unconstitutional and retaliatory detention.
...... "My cousin has been in the United States for almost 10 years," said Hamzah Abushaban, a relative who is in close contact with Kordia. "Her mom is a citizen. For her, it's a very hard question to answer: Why an I here? It's been seven months. It can get to you. It can break you."
..... "She uses every ounce of her spirit to not be broken," Abushaban said. "She prays, she talks to me, she talks to family. The community has sent her letters to encourage her. Ultimately, I think her faith has gotten her through the majority of he hardship.
..... Homeland Security did not respond to request for comment about Kordia's case.
..... Born in Jerusalem, Kordia grew up in the West Bank with her father. Her parents divorced when she was a child and, in 2016, she reunited with her mother in Paterson. Kordia worked as a waitress and helped to support her family, including a brother with autism.
..... In 2024, grieving the deaths of over 100 relatives in Gaza, she joined several protests calling for a ceasefire. On April 30, 2024 Kordia was among 119 demonstrators arrested outside Columbia University after police ordered the crowd to disperse.
..... The next day, charges were dropped, and she was released. But the brief arrest put her on Homeland Security;s radar.
..... Court records, show agents began questioning her family and neighbors. They also reviewed her WatsApp messages and MonyGram payments, according to a civil rights lawsuit Kordia field challenging her detention.
..... Around the same time, authorities also detained about a dozen students and faculty for pro-Palestinian protests and speech p often citing rare law that allow for deportation inf a non-citizen's presence poses a risk of "serious averse foreign policy consequences."
..... Kordia's case was different. Federal officials cited a student visa overstay - even as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly accused Kordia, without evidence of advocating for "violence and terrorism."
..... Her attorneys said Kordia had withdraw from an English-language program after her mother field a petition for her permanence residency. Believing the petition gave her temporary legal status, Kordia said she assumed she was in compliance.
..... In similar cases - especially where there is no criminal history - non-citizens have been able to fight their immigration case form home, her attorneys said. In March, [2025] Kordia met with officials at the U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement office in Newark and was property arrested.
..... They flew her to Texas, where she remains in custody at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado.

Release denied

..... Twice, a judge granted Kordia's release. Both times, DHS invoked an automatic stay to keep her confined.
..... On August 28, [2025] her legal team filed an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order that asked the federal court to release her immediately.
..... "Leqaa has been unlawfully confined - ripped form her family, her community, and her life in New Jersey," said Amal Thabateh, a staff attorney with CLEAR, a legal aid clinic based at the CUNY School of Law. "despite two separate orders from an immigration judge allowing Leqaa's release, the government chose instead to escalate its efforts to silence and punish her."
..... Other detained individuals - such as Columbia students protest leader Mahmoud Khalil and Rymeysa Ozturk, who wrote a Pro-Palestinina op-ed in a school newspaper - have been released following federal court orders.
..... Kordia's legal team points to a September 30 [2025] rilling in a Massachusetts federal court that found the Trump administration violate the First Amendment by arresting and detaining Pro-Palestinanian students and faculty. They say that decision supports Kordia's release.
..... Khalil, in an Online statement, called for justice for Kordia. "Just like me," he said, "Leqaa was targeted for being Palestinian and for speaking out against the genocide. We cannot forget about Leqaa and allow her story to be buried. Every day she is detained is a day of injustice."
..... Amnesty International, the human rights organization that advocates for political prisoners, has also launched a campaign for her release.
..... Kordia is represented by the Texas Civil Rights Project, Muslim Advocates, the CLEAR Project and Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel.

A family separated

..... Now, 1,500 miles away, Kordia prays to return to her family.
..... "I hope to be release form custody so that I can reunite with my family in New Jersey," Kordia wrote in court testimony. "Against my will, I was separated form my mother for nearly 20 years. Being separated from her again is unbearable."
..... Here cousin, Hamzah Abusbaban, had paid $20,000 for her bond that was returned to him when DHS invoked a stay to keep hr in custody.
..... The government "appealed again with nothing to stand on," he said.
.... "There's a lot of anger every tie I think about it," he said.
..... "It makes me feel guilty for living my life free. She's my cousin. It's different if she actually committed a crime. But she is the furthest thing from a criminal."
..... "I have faith in our legal system that failed my cousin so far twice," he said.
..... "I have faith in hr legal team and the court system that eventually the result of her being free again."

HOME