(RNS) — A Muslim woman who was the last pro-Palestinian protester still in immigration custody after the Trump administration’s 2025 campus crackdown walked free from a Texas detention center Monday (March 16).
Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman who has lived in New Jersey for 10 years and had been in custody for a year, was detained last March after protesting near Columbia University against Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, which killed nearly 200 of her family members.
“Alhamdullah (thank God) I am free, after a long hard year,” she told worshippers at the Valley Ranch Islamic Center in Irving, Texas, hours after her release. “It wasn’t easy in ICE’s dungeons.”
Kordia was freed Monday on a $100,000 bond after an immigration judge ordered her release on Friday, her lawyers said. It’s the third time a judge has ordered her release. The Department of Homeland Security challenged the first two rulings and kept her in detention.
In February, Kordia was hospitalized for a seizure and unreachable by her lawyers and family for three days, renewing nationwide calls for her release.
“We are overwhelmed with relief and gratitude at the release of our beloved Leqaa Kordia,” said Hamzah Abushaban, Kordia’s cousin, in a statement. “This past year has taken an unimaginable toll on Leqaa and our entire family.”
Kordia — who was not a student at Columbia and was not involved in political student organizing — was first arrested by New York City police during a protest …