Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman detained According to media reports, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had conducted medical examinations on the man since March, and he was taken to the hospital after a medical incident.

Cordia was detained during President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country and is currently being held in Texas.

Her legal team said she was targeted for protesting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza in 2024 near New York’s Columbia University, but the federal government said she was arrested on suspicion of overstaying her student visa.

Since being hospitalized on Friday, Cordia’s legal team and family said they have been unable to speak with her and do not know her whereabouts.

Here’s what we know about Cordia and why she continues to be detained:

Who is Cordia?

Kodia grew up in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah before coming to the United States in 2016. She arrived in the United States on a visitor’s visa and lived with her U.S. citizen mother in Paterson, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Arab communities in the country.

She later switched from a tourist visa to a student visa, according to her habeas corpus petition.

Cordia’s green card application was approved in 2021 after her mother applied for her to remain in the United States as a citizen relative. However, according to her lawyer, she received bad advice from teachers, causing her student visa to expire in 2022.

Before her arrest, Cordia worked as a waitress at a Middle Eastern restaurant on Palestine Road in New Jersey and helped care for her autistic half-brother.

Moved by personal loss, Cordia protested Israel’s war. Cordia said more than 200 of her relatives have been killed since the war broke out in October 2023.

Israel has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians and injured more than 170,000 in Gaza, in a war that rights groups, a U.N. committee and a growing number of academics say amounts to genocide. Israel has killed more than 500 Palestinians since the “ceasefire” began in October and continues to restrict aid entering Gaza.

If deported, Kodia will be handed over to the Israeli government.

Why was Cordia arrested?

She was first arrested in April 2024 during a protest outside Columbia University, but the case was quickly dropped.

On March 13, 2025, Cordia appeared at ICE headquarters in Newark, New Jersey, to answer what she thought were routine immigration questions. Cordia wrote in USA Today last month that she was detained there, “thrown into an unmarked van and driven 1,500 miles (more than 2,400 kilometers) away.”

Cordia is neither a Columbia student nor a politician.

“Although I was not a student, I felt compelled to participate. After all, Israel, with the support of the United States, had reduced Gaza to rubble, forcibly displaced my family, and murdered nearly 200 of my relatives,” she wrote in USA Today.

Today, Cordia is the only person from the demonstrations on Columbia University’s campus who remains in custody. She is being held at the Prairie Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.

Protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student with Algerian citizenship and a U.S. green card, and others have been released. However, Khalil is still fighting a legal battle to keep his American wife and children in the United States. Last month, an appeals court panel fired Khalil filed a lawsuit challenging his detention and deportation orders. The judge concluded that the federal court that ordered Khalil’s release last year lacked jurisdiction over the matter.

What are the charges against Cordia?

The U.S. government said Cordia’s transfers to relatives in the Middle East could be evidence of ties to “terrorists.”

Cordia’s lawyers have argued for her release, saying she was targeted by federal officials because of her participation in pro-Palestinian protests.

The federal government insists the case against Cordia is one of overstaying a student visa.

“Her arrest is not related to her activist activities,” the Department of Homeland Security said in April. “Kordia was arrested for violating immigration laws by overstaying her F-1 student visa, which was terminated on January 26, 2022 due to absence from work.”

Cordia wrote in USA Today last month that she does not consider herself a leader or activist.

“I am a devout Muslim deeply committed to my faith and community. I am a Palestinian woman who enjoys playing the oud, making pottery, and hiking,” Cordia wrote. “It is my moral duty to speak out against what rights groups and experts call genocide, and – I believe – a constitutionally protected right of all people in this country. But it seems, when that rhetoric defends Palestinian lives.”

An immigration judge has twice called for Cordia’s release. However, it has been repeatedly blocked by a series of procedural and administrative moves.

“The Trump administration’s use of rarely used procedural loopholes to restrain me is now being challenged in federal district courts across the country and is considered by many to be unconstitutional,” Cordia wrote.

How is Cordia’s life in ICE custody?

Since Kordia was transferred to the ICE detention facility in Alvarado in March, she has faced a series of problems, from sleeping on a bare mattress on the floor to being denied religious accommodations, including halal meals.

“The conditions inside the ICE facility where I was held were filthy, crowded, and inhumane,” Cordia wrote in the USA Today article. “For months I slept in a plastic shell called a ‘boat’, surrounded by cockroaches and with only a thin blanket. Privacy was non-existent.”

Hamza Abushaban, Kodia’s cousin, who visited her a week after her arrest last year, told The Associated Press in an interview that he was shocked by the dark circles under her eyes and her confused state.

“The first thing she asked me was why she was here,” Abu Shaaban said. “She cried a lot. She looked like she was dead.”

Human rights groups and some Democratic leaders have called her a “political prisoner” and condemned the handling of her case.

State Representative Salman Bojani said conditions in detention facilities were “suffocating.”

Kodia’s dormitory was designed for 20 women and was crammed with 60 mattresses, he said.

“She didn’t even have clothing that fully covered her body. Community groups tried to provide more appropriate clothing but were refused,” Bojani said. “Male employees entered the dormitory at any time, leaving her body exposed and violating her religious obligations.”

Amnesty International called for her release, citing ICE’s “repeated violations” of Cordia’s religious rights. “She received few halal meals, forcing her to eat food that did not comply with dietary requirements, resulting in significant weight loss,” the rights group said in a statement.

“During Ramadan, staff refused to allow her to save food for when she could break her fast, forcing her to either starve or break her fast early,” Amnesty International said. “She was not provided with suitable clothing for prayer or a clean space to pray.”

Why was Cordia hospitalized?

On Friday, Abushaban said he heard about Kodia’s hospitalization in the morning from a person who had been detained with his cousin.

He told The Dallas Morning News that Cordia fell, hit her head and suffered a seizure in a bathroom at Prairie Detention Center.

In a statement Saturday, Cordia’s attorneys and family demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security and Prairie Detention Center regarding her health and whereabouts.

“(Cordia) was hospitalized yesterday morning after reportedly collapsing and having a seizure at the Prairieland Detention Center,” the statement said, adding: “Neither her legal team nor her family have received answers about where she was hospitalized, the specifics of her health status, and whether and how ICE will ensure her health after she is discharged from an undisclosed off-site hospital.”

“We were informed that she was expected to stay there for one more night, but we still have not been able to speak with her directly or confirm why she was taken to the hospital in the first place,” the statement said.

Cordia’s family told US media that they called all nearby hospitals but could not find Cordia’s whereabouts.

What is the purpose of the Colombian protests?

In 2024, a pro-Palestinian student camp at Columbia University ignited a global movement against Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

However, the protest was dispersed after Columbia University allowed hundreds of New York City police officers onto campus, leading to dozens of arrests.

Student protesters are demanding an end to Israel’s war in Gaza and for the university to divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military.

Columbia University has imposed severe penalties on dozens of students involved in the protests, including expulsion and the revocation of degrees. University president Nemat “Minoush” Shafiq, who was criticized for his handling of student protests, resigned.

The protests also put Columbia at odds with the Trump administration, where officials have claimed anti-Semitism exists on campus. Activists say campus crackdowns violate America’s right to free speech.

Trump also canceled millions of dollars in federal funding for the university, accusing the school of failing to protect Jewish students. Colombia later settled and agreed to pay the government $200 million over three years. In exchange, the Trump administration agreed to return some of the $400 million in funding it had frozen or terminated.