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Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Leqaa Kordia needs your help! That is the distress call that came from Leqaa, a 33 y.o. Palestinian legal residence of Petterson, New Jersey, her Legal Team, and her US supporters.
Leqaa was arrested on March 13, 2025 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after participating in protests against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. She was detained at an immigration meeting in Newark, New Jersey despite being found to present a low risk to public safety. Her legal team argues that her arrest is unconstitutional, citing her pro-Palestinian views and the loss of over 200 relatives during the conflict. Kordia has been held in the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center in Texas where she has faced violations of her religious rights and has been denied proper meals and clothing.
I am making this urgent humanitarian appeal to all relevant parties, humanitarian and human rights organizations, US officials and security authorities, popular committees, media outlets, our people, and all people of conscience, demanding immediate and urgent intervention to save the life of Leqaa who is facing an extremely serious health, humanitarian, and security threat, after having served nearly a year in ICE custody in a concentration camp in Texas that is run by ICE agents.
She was transferred to the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas, which is notorious for human rights violations and far from her family. Two days ago, Leqaa has an accident in the bathroom where she bumped her head and got a concussion. He was transferred to hospital for medical treatment. ICE will not tell family and her legal team where she is at. Her family called every hospital in Prairieland area to no avail. This is a cruel and unusual punishment! Leqaa has been living in the US legally for the last 10 years and helping her mother with her brother with special needs. Leqaa with no criminal record.
This crime against Leqaa in the home of the free and land of the braves constitutes a blatant violation of the right to life, personal security, First Amendment, and due process guaranteed under state and international conventions. Silence or complacency in the face of such heinous crime makes a mockery of our legal justice system and undermines the principles of justice and human rights.
Does due process and the First Amendment apply to non-US citizens?
Yes, due process and the First Amendment do apply to non-U.S. citizens residing in the United States. Non-citizens are entitled to a broad spectrum of constitutional rights, including protections under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibit the government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without appropriate legal procedures. These protections ensure that non-citizens receive fair hearings, proper notice, and meaningful opportunities to be heard before any adverse governmental action is taken against them. Additionally, fundamental freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment, such as freedom of speech, religion, and peaceful assembly, apply equally to non-citizens, allowing them to engage in civic discourse and express their views without fear of government censorship or retaliation.
During the House Committee Meeting, Kristi Noem, the Head of Department of Homeland Security refused to answer the question, "If due process rights apply for undocumented immigrants, who died and made this woman God?
Leqaa Cordia photo taken January 6, 2016, in the US. Courtesy of Cordia family
Immigration judge ordered the release of Leqaa Kordia twice
Leqaa Kordia has been ordered to be released on bond twice by immigration judges but her detention has continued due to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filing an automatic stay that prevents the release. Despite the legal challenges and the repeated orders for her release, Leqaa remains in ICE custody in Texas, far from her family and legal support. Her case has been highlighted as a human rights violation, and she is represented by various legal organizations, including the Boston University Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, CLEAR, Muslim Advocates, and Texas Civil Rights Project, according to Wikipedia.
All of Trump's goons it seems are allowed to disobey the court orders they receive but no other person can break the law as much as they do. Judges need to start holding them in contempt and lock them up.
Leqaa was told by ICE agents that she was arrested for participating in protests against the genocide in Gaza. She risks being deported back to Palestine where she will be turned over to the Israeli government. Israel has killed almost 200 members of her family in Gaza since the genocide began. Deporting this occupied Palestinian is like throwing her into the whale's mouth where she would be tortured, raped, and far worse by the Israeli prison guards.
So much is happening in the U.S. with the Epstein files and who is on it and who is not but Palestinian Americans never forget to keep Gaza and Palestine close to our hearts and take collective action about Leqaa Kodia, the Palestinian young woman who ICE has detained for almost one year without charges or trial.
Thirty-one Texas lawmakers sent a letter to Homeland Security calling for her release. We need members of Congress to take action.
Leqaa wrote, "Speaking out against what rights groups and experts have called a genocide is my moral duty and – I thought – a constitutionally protected right for all in this country. Except, it seems, when that speech defends Palestinian life." She further argued, "If Donald Trump is willing to trample on the Constitution to silence critics of Israel, how can he call himself an America First president? Why is his administration spending taxpayer dollars keeping me and others locked up for protesting a genocide instead of funding schools and health care," Kordia wrote in Op-ed piece in USA Today.
Tell Congress and Secretary Kristi Noem @Sec Noem: Free Leqaa Kordia!
Mahmoud El-Youseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran. He writes on U.S. foreign policy, Middle East affairs, and justice. Email: elyousseph6@yahoo.com