Growing in Western coastLeka was separated from Cordia family Gaza Ban on agitation among states by Israel. Therefore, in Gaza, aunt and uncle call from the beach there, allowing Cordia to share the laughter of their cousin and give a glimpse of the waves.
Now many of the relatives are dead, killed in war that have destroyed the bandage a lot. And after more than 200 days, Cordia was swept away by the Trump administration’s Pro-Filistini protesters, disappointment when she is unable to give voice to her family.
“Most days I feel helpless,” 32 -year -old Cordia said, Speaking from Texas Immigration Detention Center where she has gone to jail from March. “I want to do something, but I can’t do it from here. I can’t do anything.”
Palestinian Cordia, who lived in New Jersey since 2016, was first arrested in the government’s campaign against protesters, one of them was one of the leading activists. All others have received release.
Only Cordia – abused by the government, ignored by the public on a large scale and caught in a legal labyrinth – turns into custody. That is, in the part, because his story is different from others who were in the premises.
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.
And Cordia has been reluctant to draw attention to itself.
In her first interview after the arrest, Cordia recently stated that Gaza was shifted to protest due to deep personal relationships, where more than 170 relatives have been killed. The government has put the relations as suspects, which are evidence of the possible relationship of terrorists, pointing to the transfer of Kordia money to relatives in the Middle East.
Lawyer for Department of Homeland Security Did not respond to the call for the comment. An agency spokesman refused to answer questions about the case.
In a bluffy judgment this week, a federal judge found that the Trump administration illegally targeted the protesters to speak. This is not binding ruling, however, in a highly conservative district where it is heard in the case of cordia.
“The government has repeatedly tried that there is some kind of justification for keeping this woman into custody indefinitely,” said her immigration attorney, Sarah Sharman-Stokes. “It doesn’t matter to them that they have no evidence.”
‘Get on the streets’
Cordia West Bank grew up in city Ramallah. When he was a child and his mother remarried, his parents divorced, finally an American citizen. In 2016, Kordia came to America on a visa visa, staying with her mother in Patterson, New Jersey, home to one of the largest Arab communities in the country.
Soon after, Cordia enrolled in an English-language program and received a student visa. Her mother allowed Kordia to live in America as a relative of a citizen.
The application was approved, but no visas were available. Government lawyers say that Kordia has been illegally in the US since leaving school in 2022, surrendered to her student’s position and invalidated her visa. Cordia said that she then believes that her mother’s application assured her legal status and accidentally followed a teacher’s advice.
Cordia served as a server in a Middle Eastern restaurant in Palestine, Patterson, helping to take care of her half -brother, with autism.
Hamas raised those routines in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and 251 hostage. Israel responded to a large-scale military campaign, in which more than 66,000 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, according to the Hamas-Interested Sarkar.
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.”
Cordia said that she joined more than a dozen protests New yorkNew Jersey and Washington, DC In April 2024, he was arrested outside Columbia’s gates along with 100 other protesters – prosecutors rejected and sealed quickly.
Soon after assuming office, President Donald Trump The executive orders issued were equal with protests with protests. DHS intelligence analysts began collecting dosier on nonsense, who criticized Israel or opposed the war, which was based on dolsing sites and information from the police.
“All resident aliens who joined anti -jihadi protests,” said Trump in a fact sheet with orders. “Come 2025, we will find you and we will deport you.”
Monitoring, arrest and illusion
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?”
Cordia hired a lawyer before agreeing to a meeting of March 13 with immigration and customs enforcement officers in Newark. He was immediately detained and sent to the Prreity Detection Center in the south of Dallas.
Once, he was handed over a bare mattress on the floor and refused the religious residence, including Halal food, his lawyers said.
When his cousin, Hamjah Abushaban visited Cordia a week after his arrest, he was surprised by dark circles under his eyes and his confusion.
“One of the first things she asked me why she was there,” said Abushaban. “She cried a lot. She looked like death.”
“I should be asked a thousand times, like, you are sure you have not committed crime?” He said. “What she thinks and I thought maybe there are going to be a few more days of being detained, now, what has happened in 7 months.”
Cordia said that she did 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.
“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.
Court papers show that the New York Police gave DHS a record of arrest of his arrest – a clear violation of a city law that prohibits cooperation with immigration enforcement. Federal officials told the police that a criminal money laundering investigation required information, a police spokesperson later said.
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. In 2022, a payment of $ 1,000 went to an aunt in Gaza, whose house and hair salon were destroyed in an Israeli strike. Last year, two more payment went to a cousin struggling to feed his family.
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.
The judge has ordered him to be released on bond twice. The government has challenged the ruling, triggering a long appeal process – highly abnormal in immigration cases that do not involve serious crimes.
Typically, when the government goes after anyone to eliminate the visa, they are rarely arrested alone, kept in custody for a long time, said Adam Cox, a professor of immigration law at New York University.
Cox said, “The scale and scope and promotion of the campaign against student protesters by the Trump administration is indeed nothing as we have seen in recent memory,” Cox said, who study the rise of President Shakti in the immigration policy.
‘A person left behind’
Cordia has demanded release in the federal court, which has been taken by Khalil and others. Can she succeed, an appeal in New York can depend on the court, which heard the arguments from government lawyers this week, who argue that such relief should be largely off-lympized for nonsuction.
Locked in June, Khalil said that he had closely followed the case of Cordia, asked the lawyers to relay the messages and remind their supporters “that a person is left behind.”
Khalil said, “She came directly from the West Bank, which only avoids the settlers of settling to deal with a version and daily examinations of administrative detention,” Khalil said, referring to some of the Palestinians in Israel without any accusation or indefinite practice. “It breaks my heart that she is going through all this.”
As custody is spread, Cordia said that it is difficult to follow development in war, maintain contact with relatives caught in conflict alone.
But it is provided several hours to think about a time when the war finally ends and she can find peace.
He will start with his mother and other relatives again joining, he said, and maybe one day he has his own family. She dreams of opening a cafe and introducing people from Palestinian culture through food. She wants to chase an American life.
She says, “I wanted all this, living peacefully in the ground appreciating peace with my family.” “This is really everything I want.”