Palestinian woman detained by ICE in 2025 is hospitalized after seizure in detention
Leqaa Kordia, who was detained last year during a meeting with US immigration officials, maintains that she was targeted for her pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University
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WASHINGTON — A Palestinian woman was hospitalized on Friday after suffering a seizure in US immigration detention, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Monday.
The legal team and family of Leqaa Kordia, a 33-year-old Muslim Palestinian woman living in the US whose mother is an American citizen, said she was discharged from the hospital and returned to detention on Monday.
On Friday, “medical staff at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, notified ICE that detainee Leqaa Kordia was admitted to Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Burleson, Texas, for further evaluation following a seizure,” a DHS spokesperson said.
Kordia was detained by US immigration authorities early last year during a meeting with immigration officials at the Newark Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office, where she was accompanied by her attorney.
At the time of her detention, Kordia, who has lost dozens of family members in Gaza, was in the process of securing legal residency.
Her family and legal team said they did not receive updates or communication from US authorities about her health during the hospitalization.
“While we are relieved Leqaa is out of the hospital, we still have no idea what her medical condition is and what happened to her the past three days,” her cousin, Hamzah Abushaban, said in a statement.
DHS says ICE ensured she received proper medical care.
Rights groups have reported on detainee complaints about conditions in ICE detention facilities, calling the conditions inhumane. The US government has denied treating detainees inhumanely.
Amnesty International says 175 members of Kordia’s family were killed during the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas terror group’s invasion and massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023.
DHS says Kordia, who was raised in the West Bank, was arrested for immigration violations related to overstaying her expired student visa. The department also says she was arrested by local authorities in 2024 during pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protests at Columbia University that the department cast as being supportive of Hamas.
Kordia and other protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the government wrongly equates criticism of the war in Gaza with antisemitism, and advocacy for Palestinian rights with support for extremism.
Many Jewish groups said the widespread campus protests created a hostile atmosphere for Jews and were pocked with antisemitic expressions. A report published by Columbia’s antisemitism task force in December found that both Jewish and Israeli students were routinely singled out and scapegoated in classrooms and by other students.
Kordia has said she was targeted for pro-Palestinian activism and cast the conditions in her detention facility as “filthy, overcrowded and inhumane.”
US President Donald Trump’s administration cracked down on pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel protests by threatening to freeze federal funds for universities where protests occurred and by attempting to deport foreign protesters. It has faced legal obstacles while rights advocates say the crackdown hurts free speech and lacks due process.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.