Palestinian Protester Reports Medical Emergency After 11 Months in Immigration Detention

A Palestinian woman detained for nearly a year in a Texas immigration facility suffered a seizure last week that required hospitalization, an incident she attributes to poor conditions at the privately operated detention center.

Leqaa Kordia, 33, was hospitalized for three days following what she described as the first seizure of her life. In a statement released through her attorneys on Thursday, Kordia said she remained shackled throughout her hospital stay and was prevented from contacting family members or meeting with legal representation.

“For three days in the emergency room, my hands and legs were weighed down by heavy chains as they drew my blood and gave me medications,” Kordia stated. “I felt like an animal. My hands are still full of marks from the heavy metal.”

According to Kordia, medical professionals suggested the seizure may have resulted from inadequate sleep, poor nutrition, and stress. Her legal team had previously raised concerns about her health, noting she had lost 49 pounds (22 kilograms) during detention, partly because the facility allegedly failed to provide meals compliant with her Muslim religious requirements.

“I’ve been here for 11 months, and the food is so bad it makes me sick,” she said in her statement. “At Prairieland, your daily life — whether you can have access to the food or medicine you need or even a good night’s sleep — is controlled by the private, for-profit business that runs this facility.”

The Department of Homeland Security has disputed these claims. While spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin did not immediately respond to the Associated Press, she told The New York Times that Kordia was receiving appropriate medical care and was not being mistreated.

Kordia’s case has drawn attention as part of broader immigration enforcement actions against pro-Palestinian activists. A New Jersey resident who grew up in the West Bank, she was initially arrested along with approximately 100 others during protests at Columbia University in 2024. Though the charges against her were dismissed and sealed, information about her arrest was later shared with immigration authorities by the New York City Police Department, supposedly as part of a money laundering investigation.

She was taken into custody during a routine check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 13. At the time, federal officials highlighted her arrest as part of a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activists, characterizing her participation in the Columbia demonstration as evidence of “pro-Hamas” activities.

Kordia has explained that she joined the demonstrations after Israel’s military actions in Gaza resulted in the deaths of numerous relatives. “My way of helping my family and my people was to go to the streets,” she told the Associated Press in October.

Despite not being charged with any crime since her detention, Kordia remains at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Texas – the only protester from the initial wave of arrests still in custody. Immigration judges have twice ordered her release on bond, but government challenges to these rulings have triggered an extended appeals process, an unusual step in cases not involving serious criminal charges.

Immigration officials have accused Kordia of visa violations and have questioned money transfers she made to family members in the Middle East. Kordia maintains these funds were intended to support relatives whose homes were destroyed during the conflict or who were suffering from its effects. An immigration judge later found “overwhelming evidence” supporting Kordia’s explanation for these financial transactions.

Her attorneys say she previously held a student visa but inadvertently surrendered that status after applying to remain in the country as a relative of a U.S. citizen.

In her statement released Thursday, Kordia described the detention facility as “built to break people and destroy their health and hope,” adding that “the best medicine for me and everyone else here is our freedom.”

Kordia’s case highlights ongoing concerns about detention conditions in privately operated immigration facilities and raises questions about the treatment of individuals detained for immigration violations connected to political expression.