Pro-Palestine protester Leqaa Kordia freed from US immigration detention
What happened
Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman who grew up in the occupied West Bank and moved to the US in 2016, was detained at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas beginning in March 2025 after participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia University in 2024.
An immigration judge ruled three times that Kordia was eligible for bond release. Immigration officials appealed the first two rulings. On the third ruling, government lawyers did not challenge the decision, and Kordia was released on a $100,000 bond on Monday (March 16, 2026).
Kordia had been hospitalized for three days following a seizure after fainting and hitting her head at the detention facility. At a Friday hearing, her lawyers presented evidence of a neurological condition that had worsened in custody and argued she could stay with US citizen family members and posed no flight risk. Immigration judge Tara Naslow agreed with the defense, noting she had reviewed thousands of pages of evidence with very little presented by the government.
Who's perspective
This article appears to be written from a human rights and civil liberties perspective, centering Kordia's personal experience and legal ordeal. The piece foregrounds her voice, her health deterioration, and the judge's skepticism of the government's case, which shapes the reader toward sympathy with Kordia and skepticism toward immigration enforcement.
Taken for granted
The article takes for granted that Kordia's detention was primarily a response to her political activism, treating the link between the demonstrations and her detention as established fact. It does not address whether there were independent immigration violations or other legal grounds that authorities cited for her initial detention.
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