NJ Woman Released From ICE Detention After A Year

NEW JERSEY — A New Jersey woman detained for more than a year in an immigration facility in Texas walked free Monday, closing out a series of arrests tied to a federal crackdown on campus protests over the war in Gaza.

Leqaa Kordia, 33, was released from the Prairieland Detention Center after an immigration judge granted her bond days earlier and federal officials declined to challenge the decision.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m free! I’m free!” Kordia told reporters after her release. “There is a lot of injustice in this place. There is a lot of people that shouldn’t be here the first place.”

Kordia, who lived in Paterson, was arrested in March 2025 during a check-in with immigration officials. She said authorities targeted her for participating in a 2024 protest outside Columbia University against the Israel-Hamas war, which she said killed relatives.

Federal officials said she overstayed a student visa.

“The facts of this case have not changed: Leqaa Kordia is in the country illegally after violating the terms of her visa," a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said after her release.

Kordia entered the United States in 2016 on a tourist visa and later obtained a student visa. Her attorneys said she was approved for a green card in 2021 but fell out of status after receiving incorrect advice about her enrollment, leading to her visa expiring.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he raised her case in a recent meeting with Donald Trump.

“In my meeting with President Trump last month, we discussed ICE’s actions at Columbia University,” Mamdani said in a statement. “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.”

Supporters said her detention reflected broader enforcement actions tied to pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses.

Justin Mazzola of Amnesty International USA said Kordia’s release allows her to return home ahead of the end of Ramadan.

“After spending a harrowing year in ICE custody, Leqaa can return to New Jersey to reunite with her family and loved ones,” Mazzola said. “But to be clear, Leqaa should not have been detained in the first place.”

Kordia described conditions inside the detention center in a recent opinion piece, alleging inadequate medical care.

“This place makes women sick,” she wrote in an op-ed. “Those with serious medical conditions are not given proper treatment. I spent 72 hours chained like an animal in a hospital after experiencing the first seizure of my life.”

Her case drew attention alongside other arrests connected to campus demonstrations, including that of Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident detained after organizing protests.

Federal authorities arrested multiple students and scholars during the early months of the Trump administration while also moving to cancel thousands of international student visas. Officials said the actions were part of efforts to address campus antisemitism during protests over the Gaza conflict.

Some universities, including Columbia University, reached agreements with the administration, while others, including Harvard University, continue negotiations over federal funding and campus policies.

Kordia’s release marks the final known case of a campus protester held in immigration detention during that period.

The number of people held at Delaney Hall, the immigration detention facility in Newark, more than tripled in November from early months this year, records show.

The average daily population for Delaney Hall reached 807 last month, a sharp uptick from September, when the site held 234 people, according to data from TRAC, a nonpartisan research group that obtains and analyzes federal records.