Paterson woman in ICE detention
Lawmakers pressing for her release
By: Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... More than 30 Texas legislators have signed letter demanding the release of Leqyaa Kordia from immigration custody, adding their voices to the growing calls to free the Paterson woman, who has been detained in Texas since March. [2025]
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The Democratic lawmakers wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on January 27 [2026] that Kordia's continued detention is unlawful, punitive and "shameful." The letter notes that Kordia, 33, has been locked up even after an immigration judge twice ordered her release.
..... Kordia and her attorney allege that she was targeted because she joined pro-Palestinian protests. The Department of Homeland Security says Kordia violated her visa. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
..... "The federal administration's ongoing and shameful confinement of Leqaa is part of its broader crackdown on freedom of expression and its criminalization of peaceful protest, undermining the protections of the U.S. Constitution to advance their own authoritarian political agenda," the lawmakers wrote. "This cannot continue."
..... Kordia, a Palestinian, came to the United States on a tourist visa in 2016 and secured a student visa while taking English language classes. She lived with her mother, a U.S. citizen, in Paterson and worked as a waitress, helping to support her family and care for her brother, who has autism.
..... In April 2024, she was arrested as police broke up a protest outside Columbia University in Manhattan calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Charges were dropped the next day, but immigration authorities investigated Kordia amid a sweeping crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests.
..... During a chick-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March 2025, Kordia was detained and sent to the Praireland Detention Center in Texas, where she remains today.
..... New Jersey lawmakers, the Paterson City Council and the human rights group Amnesty International have also advocated for her release.
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Authorities said Kordia had overstayed her student visa. She said she withdraw from her studies in error because she opened an application for permanent residency that she thought kept her in compliance. It's the kind of error that doesn't typically lead to confinement, said her lawyers. who argued that Kordia is being targeted for her political speech.
..... An immigration judge twice ordered Kordia's release, but federal authorities used administrative stays to override those orders.
..... Other protesters who were detained in connection with pro-Palestinian protests and speech have been freed by judicial orders. Kordia is the last in detention, she said in a January 21 [2026] column at USA Today. She wrote that she protested war as Gaza "was laid to waste" and nearly 200 of her family members were killed. Over the past two years, more than 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, and thousands more are missing under rubble or were detained without changes. Gaza officials have said. Many Gazans have lost hundreds of family members because they have large, extended families often living together, especially after shelters have been destroyed.
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"Speaking out against what rights groups and experts have called a genocide is my moral duty and - O thought - a constitutionally right for all in this country. Except, it seems, when that speech defends Palestinian life," Kordia wrote.
..... "Through my continued detention," she continued, "the Trump administration aims to send a chilling message: People who speak out for Palestinian rights or criticize Israel will face retribution. This is not only morally outrageous and unconstitutional; it is deeply unpopular among Americans."
..... Homeland Security did not immediately response to a request for comment. In a previous reply about Kordia's case, a spokesperson said Kordia had "violated the terms of her student visa" and that she had been "arrested by local law enforcement for her involvement in Pro-Hamas protest at Columbia University."
Lawmakers decry detention
..... The January 27 [2026] letter was signed by three Texas state senators and 31 members of the state House of Representatives.
..... A similar letter in December [2025] was signed by five New Jersey lawmakers, U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim and Representative Nellie Pou, LaMonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman, along with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen. they wrote to the heads of DHS and ICE, say8ing Kordia was punished for an "honest mistake" and for participating "in a peaceful, nonviolent demonstration to mourn her loved ones and honor their lives."
.... "Rather than punishing speech protested by the First Amendment," they wrote, "this Administration should be defending it, particular when the individual is acting peacefully, has no criminal history and poses no threat to national security or public safety."
..... Both letters also raised concerns about conditions at the Praireland center that Kordia herself has called "filthy" and "inhumane."
..... The Paterson City Council also lent its support to Kordia, passing a December 16 [2025] resolution calling for her release and for DHS "to end retaliatory detention practices that infringe upon First Amendment protections."