In a statement, the protesters say Leqaa Kordia has been unjustly detained for speaking out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
DALLAS — Protesters gathered Thursday outside the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Downtown Dallas, demanding the release of a Columbia University student from a North Texas detention center they say was unjustly detained.
Leqaa Kordia is a Palestinian who was attending Columbia University on a student visa when she was arrested and taken to the Prarie Land Detention Center in Alvarado. In a statement, the protesters say Kordia was arrested in retaliation for speaking out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
About 50 people with the Palestinian Youth Movement gathered outside the building, with some holding Palestinian flags and signs, including a banner that reads “Bring Leqaa home! Protesting genocide is not a crime!”
In a post on X in April, the Department of Homeland Security says Kordia was arrested for having overstayed her student visa. But Sumayyah El-Heet, an organizer with PYM in Dallas, says her arrest isn’t about enforcing immigration law, but about criminalizing anyone who dares to speak out against the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.
“Leqaa’s imprisonment is meant to send a chilling message to every Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and person of conscience who dares to raise their voice,” El-Heet said. “We will not let Leqaa be disappeared in silence.”
El-Heet said the government is using immigration status as a way to target the movement and to pick off people speaking up for Palestine and speaking out about the U.S. sending weapons to Israel.
Leqaa, El-Heet said, has seen more than 100 members of her family killed in Gaza and had been vocal about her support for Palestine prior to her arrest.
“What would it say about our humanity if we did not speak up?” El-Heet said.
Leqaa had her bond granted by an immigration judge back in April, which her family paid, but El-Heet said Homeland Security then invoked a rarely used provision to keep her detained.
“She should have been home already. But they’re using these rare, vague laws to be able to continue to detain her,” she said.
PYM is demanding an arms embargo so the U.S. will stop sending weapons to Israel called Mask Off Maersk. Maersk is a logistics and shipping company sending military cargo to Israel. For more information, click here.