Leqaa Kordia returns to Paterson after year in ICE detention linked to Columbia University protest
Immigration judge grants release as case continues; supporters hold welcome home rally in her New Jersey community
Residents of Paterson held a rally on Sunday to welcome home Leqaa Kordia, who had spent a year living in an ICE detention facility after she was arrested at a Columbia University protest over the war in Gaza.
Kordia, 33, had been living in Paterson with family members since 2016.
She was released from the Prairieland Detention Center in Texas last week after an immigration judge granted her bond and federal officials declined to challenge the decision. Her legal team said the judge had ordered her release for the third time, most recently setting bond at $100,000, as her case continues.
Kordia was among more than 100 people arrested in 2024 during demonstrations at Columbia University related to the war in Gaza. The charges against her were later dismissed.
In March 2025, she was detained by immigration authorities during a scheduled check-in in New Jersey for overstaying her visa. Her attorneys have said the arrest was retaliatory and was tied to her participation in the Columbia protests.
Kordia entered the United States in 2016 on a tourist visa and later obtained a student visa. Her attorneys said she was approved for a green card in 2021 but fell out of status after receiving incorrect guidance about her school enrollment.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he raised Kordia’s case directly with President Donald Trump in a recent meeting, urging federal officials to release her.
“In my meeting with President Trump last month, we discussed ICE’s actions at Columbia University,” Mamdani said in a statement. “I asked that the federal government release Leqaa Kordia and drop the cases against four others.”
Kordia described troubling conditions inside the Prairieland facility. In a recent opinion piece, she alleged inadequate medical care and said she suffered a seizure while in custody, after which she spent three days hospitalized.
Krystal Knapp is the founder of The Jersey Vindicator and the hyperlocal news website Planet Princeton. Previously she was a reporter at The Trenton Times for a decade.