Caught in Limbo: The Struggle of a Palestinian Woman in U.S. Immigration Detention

Fri Oct 10 2025 19:33:14 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Leqaa Kordia's story highlights the stark realities faced by those protesting the war in Gaza while grappling with immigration policies that seem hostile toward activists.

Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian immigrant, finds herself in a Texas detention center after protesting for her relatives in Gaza. The Trump admin's crackdown on activists has left her isolated, raising questions about government targeting of dissent.

NEW YORK (AP) — Growing up in the West Bank, Leqaa Kordia was separated from family in Gaza by Israeli restrictions on movement between the territories. So aunts and uncles in Gaza would call from the beach there, allowing Kordia to share her cousins’ laughter and glimpse the waves.

Now many of those relatives are dead, killed in the war that has destroyed much of the Strip. And more than 200 days after Kordia was swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters, she despairs over being unable to give her family a voice.

“Most days I feel helpless,” said Kordia, 32, speaking from a Texas immigration detention center where she has been jailed since March. “I want to do something, but I can’t from here. I can’t do anything.”

Kordia, a Palestinian who has lived in New Jersey since 2016, was one of the first arrested in the government’s campaign against protesters. All the others have gained release.

Only Kordia — mischaracterized by the government, largely overlooked by the public and caught in a legal maze — languishes in detention. That is, in part, because her story differs from most others who thronged campuses.

When she joined demonstrations against Israel outside Columbia University, she wasn’t a student or part of a group that might have provided support. As the arrests of activists like Mahmoud Khalil drew condemnation from elected officials and advocates, Kordia’s case largely remained out of the public eye.

In her first interview since her arrest, Kordia said recently that she was moved to protest because of deep personal ties to Gaza, where more than 170 relatives have been killed. The government has cast those ties as suspect, pointing to Kordia’s money transfers to relatives in the Middle East as evidence of possible ties to terrorists.

In March, immigration agents showed up at her home and workplace, as well as her uncle’s house in Florida. “The experience was very confusing,” she said. “It was like: Why are you doing all this?”

While grappling with the isolation of her detention, Kordia's profound desire remains to reunite with her family and contribute meaningfully to their well-being.