About seven months after the pro -Palestinian activists by the Trump administration, only one is likely to be lodged in jail, stating how the pain of family members is under the pain of family members Gaza Motivated him to protest.
Leka Cordia, from a Palestinian Western coast Who lives new Jersey Since 2016, the US immigration has been held from March at the prevention center. He said that Anubhav has made him powerless to help or help the family members caught in war or to speak on their behalf.
32 -year -old Cordia recently said, “Most days I feel helpless.” “I want to do something, but I can’t do it from here. I can’t do anything.”
Here some takes are from an interview with Cordia, since his arrest:
Inspired by family loss
Cordia said Gaza was shifted to protest due to deep personal relations.
Before the war began, he said, the daily life was filled with responsibilities in the form of a server in a Middle Eastern restaurant in New Jersey and was taking care of his half -brother, who has autism. Those routines were extended in 2023 after attacking Hamas IsraelKilling around 1,200 people and holding 251 hostage. Israel replied with a large -scale military campaign that Gaza’s health officials say more than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed.
In a call with relatives in Gaza, “They were telling me that ‘we are hungry. … We are scared. We are cold. We don’t have anywhere to go anywhere,” Kordia said. “So my way to help my family and my people was to go on the streets.”
Unlike most other people targeted
Several protesting activists followed by the Trump administration were prominent activists. All others who were discontinued have released.
Cordia comes into custody in the part, as her story is different. When she joined the protests against Israel outside Columbia University, she was not part of a student or a group that may have provided assistance. The arrest of activists like Mahmud Khalil condemned the elected officials and advocates, the case of Kordia was largely out of public eyes.
In that month, she is trapped in a legal labyrinth, government lawyers asked to fight a judge’s decision to be released on bonds. He says he has been illegally in the country since 2022 when he left school, surrendered his position as a student and invalidated his visa.
Monitoring, arrest again
Cordia said that she was involved in more than a dozen protests in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC in April 2024, arrested with 100 other protesters outside Columbia’s gate – was quickly rejected and sealed by prosecutors.
Soon after the president Donald Trump Taking charge, the Department of Homeland Security Officers began collecting dosier on nonsense, who criticized Israel or opposed the war. It has become clear that DHS obtained a record of his brief arrest from NYPD, saying that a criminal money laundering investigation required information.
In March, immigration agents showed at Cordia’s house and workplace, as well as his uncle’s house in Florida. “The experience was very misleading,” he said. “It was so: why are you doing all this?”
In a meeting of March 13 with immigration and customs enforcement officers, he was immediately detained and sent to the Prereyland Detention Center in the south of Dallas.
Cordia said that she does not understand the causes of her custody until a week or two later, when a television was tuned to the news of a protector arrest in convenience.
“I see my name, literally in big letters, on CNN and I was liked, what is going on?” He said.
Investigated payment
Administration officials explained the arrest of Cordia as part of exile effort against those who “actively participated in anti -American, terrorist activities”. A DHS press release arrested last year’s arrest in “Pro-Hamas” demonstration, accidentally labeled him as a student of Columbia.
Weeks later in a bond hearing, government lawyers argued for the continuous detention of Cordia, stating that he had sent a large amount of money to Palestine and Jordan. “
Cordia said he and his mother had sent money, which had sent relatives with $ 16,900 in eight years.
Cordia said, “It is a heartbreaking,” to accuse the government of being a terrorist and accusing you of sending money to terrorists. ”
An immigration judge, investigating the transactions records and statements from relatives, found “heavy evidence” that the cordia was telling the truth about payment.
But the government has made an unusual appeal to the decision from which it was taken into custody for more than 200 days after arrest.